I 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


Women  of  Achievement 


Written  for 

The  Fireside  Schools 


Under  the  auspices  of  the 

Woman's  American  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society 


by 

BENJAMIN  BRAWLEY 
Dean  of  Morehcmse  College 

Author  of  "  A  Short  History  9?  the  American  Ne&ro,"  "  Th«  Ne&ro 
in  Literature  and  Art,"  "  Your  Ne&ro  Neighbor,"  Etc. 


Copyright,    1919 

by  the 
Woman's  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society. 


I.  Introduction. — The  Negro  Woman  in  Ameri 
can  Life. 

II.  Harriet  Tubman. 

III.  Nora  Gordon. 

IV.  Meta  Warrick  Fuller. 
V.  Mary  McLeod  Bethune. 

VI.  Mary  Church  Terrell. 


JOANNA  P.  MOORE 


THE  FIRESIDE  SCHOOLS 

The  work  of  the  Fireside  Schools  was 
begun  in  1884  by  Joanna  P.  Moore,  who 
was  born  in  Clarion  County,  Pennsylvania, 
September  26,  1832,  and  who  died  in  Selma, 
Alabama,  April  15,  1916.  For  fifty  years 
Miss  Moore  was  well  known  as  an  earnest 
worker  for  the  betterment  of  the  Negro 
people  of  the  South.  Beginning  in  the 
course  of  the  Civil  War,  at  Island  No.  10, 
in  November,  1863,  she  gave  herself  un 
tiringly  to  the  work  to  which  she  felt  called. 
In  1864  she  ministered  to  a  group  of  people 
at  Helena,  Arkansas.  In  1868  she  went  to 
Lauderdale,  Mississippi,  to  help  the  Friends 
in  an  orphan  asylum.  While  she  was  at  one 
time  left  temporarily  in  charge  of  the  insti 
tution  cholera  broke  out,  and  eleven  children 
died  within  one  week;  but  she  remained  at 
her  post  until  the  fury  of  the  plague  was 
abated.  She  spent  nine  years  in  the  vicinity 
of  New  Orleans,  reading  the  Bible  to  those 
who  could  not  read,  writing  letters  in  search 
of  lost  ones,  and  especially  caring  for  the 
helpless  old  women  that  she  met.  In  1877 
the  Woman's  American  Baptist  Home  Mis 
sion  Society  gave  her  its  first  commission. 


6  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

The  object  of  the  Fireside  Schools  is  to 
secure  the  daily  prayerful  study  of  God's 
word  by  having  this  read  to  parents  and 
children  together ;  to  teach  parents  and  chil 
dren,  husbands  and  wives,  their  respective 
duties  one  to  another ;  to  supply  homes  with 
good  reading  matter;  and  also  to  inculcate 
temperance,  industry,  neighborly  helpful 
ness,  and  greater  attention  to  the  work  of 
the  church.  The  publication  of  Hope,  the 
organ  of  the  Fireside  Schools,  was  begun  in 
1885.  Closely  associated  with  the  Schools 
are  the  Bible  Bands,  a  single  band  consist 
ing  of  any  two  or  three  people  in  the  same 
church  or  neighborhood  who  meet  to  review 
the  lessons  in  Hope  and  to  report  and  plan 
Christian  work.  All  the  activities  are  under 
the  general  supervision  of  the  Woman's 
American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society, 
though  the  special  Fireside  School  head 
quarters  are  at  612  Gay  Street,  Nashville, 
Tennessee.  The  present  work  is  dedicated 
to  the  memory  of  Joanna  P.  Moore,  and  to 
the  wives  and  mothers  and  sisters,  now  hap 
pily  numbered  by  the  thousands,  who  are 
engaged  in  the  work  of  the  Fireside  Schools. 


I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  Ne&ro  Woman  in  American  Life 

In  the  history  of  the  Negro  race  in  America 
no  more  heroic  work  has  been  done  than  that 
performed  by  the  Negro  woman.  The  great 
responsibilities  of  life  have  naturally  drifted 
to  the  men;  but  who  can  measure  the  pa 
tience,  the  love,  the  self-sacrifice  of  those 
who  in  a  more  humble  way  have  labored  for 
their  people  and  even  in  the  midst  of  war 
striven  most  earnestly  to  keep  the  home- 
fires  burning?  Even  before  emancipation  a 
strong  character  had  made  herself  felt  in 
more  than  one  community;  and  to-day, 
whether  in  public  life,  social  service,  educa 
tion,  missions,  business,  literature,  music,  or 
even  the  professions  and  scholarship,  the 
Negro  woman  is  making  her  way  and  re 
flecting  credit  upon  a  race  that  for  so  many 
years  now  has  been  struggling  to  the  light. 

It  was  but  natural  that  those  should  first 
become  known  who  were  interested  in  the 
uplift  of  the  race.  If  we  except  such  an 
unusual  and  specially  gifted  spirit  as  Phillis 


8  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

Wheatley,  we  shall  find  that  those  who  most 
impressed  the  American  public  before  the 
Civil  War  were  the  ones  who  best  identified 
themselves  with  the  general  struggle  for 
freedom.  Outstanding  was  the  famous  lec 
turer,  Sojourner  Truth.  This  remarkable 
woman  was  born  of  slave  parents  in  the 
state  of  New  York  about  1798.  She  recalled 
vividly  in  her  later  years  the  cold,  damp 
cellar-room  in  which  slept  the  slaves  of  the 
family  to  which  she  belonged,  and  where  she 
was  taught  by  her  mother  to  repeat  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  to  trust  God  at  all  times. 
When  in  the  course  of  the  process  of  gradual 
emancipation  in  New  York  she  became  le 
gally  free  in  1827,  her  master  refused  to 
comply  with  the  law.  She  left,  but  was 
pursued  and  found.  Rather  than  have  her 
go  back,  however,  a  friend  paid  for  her 
services  for  the  rest  of  the  year.  Then  there 
came  an  evening  when,  searching  for  one  of 
her  children  that  had  been  stolen  and  sold, 
she  found  herself  without  a  resting-place 
for  the  night.  A  Quaker  family,  however, 
gave  her  lodging.  Afterwards  she  went  to 
New  York  City,  joined  a  Methodist  church, 
and  worked  hard  to  improve  her  condition. 
Later,  having  decided  to  leave  New  York 
for  a  lecture  tour  through  the  East,  she 
made  a  small  bundle  of  her  belongings  and 


INTRODUCTION  9 

informed  a  friend  that  her  name  was  no 
longer  Isabella,  as  she  had  been  known,  but 
Sojourner.  Afterwards,  as  she  herself  said, 
finding  that  she  needed  two  names  she 
adopted  Truth,  because  it  was  intended  that 
she  should  declare  the  truth  to  the  people. 
She  went  on  her  way,  lecturing  to  people 
wherever  she  found  them  assembled  and  be 
ing  entertained  in  many  aristocratic  homes. 
She  was  entirely  untaught  in  the  schools, 
but  tall  and  of  commanding  presence,  origi 
nal,  witty,  and  always  suggestive.  The  sto 
ries  told  about  her  are  numberless;  but  she 
was  ever  moved  by  an  abiding  trust  in  God, 
and  she  counted  among  her  friends  many  of 
the  most  distinguished  Americans  of  her 
time.  By  her  tact  and  her  gift  of  song  she 
kept  down  ridicule,  and  by  her  fervor  and 
faith  she  won  many  friends  for  the  anti- 
slavery  cause. 

It  was  impossible  of  course  for  any  single 
woman  to  carry  on  the  tradition  of  such  a 
character  as  Sojourner  Truth.  She  be 
longed  to  a  distinct  epoch  in  the  country's 
history,  one  in  wrhich  the  rights  of  the  Negro 
and  the  rights  of  woman  in  general  were 
frequently  discussed  on  the  same  platform; 
and  she  passed — so  far  as  her  greatest  influ 
ence  was  concerned — with  her  epoch.  In 


10  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

more  recent  years  those  women  who  have 
represented  the  race  before  the  larger  public 
have  been  persons  of  more  training  and  cul 
ture,  though  it  has  been  practically  impos 
sible  for  any  one  to  equal  the  native  force 
and  wit  of  Sojourner  Truth.  Outstanding 
in  recent  years  have  been  Mrs.  Booker  T. 
Washington  and  Mrs.  Mary  Church  Terrell. 
The  spread  of  culture,  however,  and  the 
general  force  of  the  social  emphasis  have 
more  and  more  led  those  who  were  inter 
ested  in  social  betterment  to  come  together 
so  that  there  might  be  the  greater  effect 
from  united  effort.  Thus  we  have  had  de 
veloping  in  almost  all  of  our  cities  and  towns 
various  clubs  working  for  the  good  of  the 
race,  whether  the  immediate  aim  was  literary 
culture,  an  orphanage,  an  old  folks'  home, 
the  protection  of  working  girls,  or  some- 
'diing  else  similarly  noble.  Prominent  among 
the  pioneers  in  such  work  were  Mrs.  Joseph 
ine  St.  Pierre  Ruffin,  of  Boston,  and  Mrs. 
John  T.  Cook,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  No 
one  can  record  exactly  how  much  has  been 
accomplished  by  these  organizations;  in  fact, 
the  clubs  range  all  the  way  in  effectiveness 
from  one  that  is  a  dominating  force  in  its 
town  to  one  that  is  struggling  to  get  started. 
The  result  of  the  work,  however,  would  in 
any  case  sum  up  with  an  astonishing  total. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

A  report  from  Illinois,  fairly  representative 
of  the  stronger  work,  mentioned  the  follow 
ing  activities:  "The  Cairo  hospital,  fostered 
and  under  the  supervision  of  the  Yates  Club 
of  Cairo;  the  Anna  Field  Home  for  Girls, 
Peoria;  Lincoln  Old  Folks'  and  Orphans' 
Home,  founded  by  Mrs.  Eva  Monroe  and 
assisted  by  the  Women's  Club  of  Spring 
field;  the  Home  for  Aged  and  Infirm  Col 
ored  People,  Chicago,  founded  by  Mrs. 
Gabrella  Smith  and  others;  the  Amanda 
Smith  Orphans'  Home,  Harvey;  the  Phillis 
Wheatley  Home  for  Wage-Earning  Girls, 
of  Chicago."  In  Alabama  the  State  Feder 
ation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs  has  estab 
lished  and  is  supporting  a  reformatory  at 
Mt.  Meigs  for  Negro  boys,  and  the  women 
are  very  enthusiastic  about  the  work.  A 
beautiful  and  well  ordered  home  for  Negro 
girls  was  established  a  few  years  ago  in 
Virginia.  Of  the  White  Rose  Mission  of 
New  York  we  are  told  that  it  "has  done 
much  good.  A  large  number  of  needy  ones 
have  found  shelter  within  its  doors  and  have 
been  able  to  secure  work  of  all  kinds.  This 
club  has  a  committee  to  meet  the  incoming 
steamers  from  the  South  and  see  that  young 
women  entering  the  city  as  strangers  are 
directed  to  proper  homes."  All  such  work 


12  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

is  touching  in  its  tenderness  and  effective 
ness.  The  National  Association  of  Colored 
Women's  Clubs  was  founded  in  1896. 
The  organization  has  become  stronger  and 
stronger  until  it  is  now  a  powerful  and 
effective  one  with  hundreds  of  members. 
One  of  its  recent  activities  has  been  the  pur 
chase  of  the  home  of  Frederick  Douglass  at 
Anacostia,  D.  C. 

In  education,  church  life,  and  missions — 
special  forms  of  social  service — we  have  only 
to  look  around  us  to  see  what  the  Negro 
woman  is  accomplishing.  Not  only  is  she 
bearing  the  brunt  of  common  school  educa 
tion  for  the  race;  in  more  than  one  instance 
a  strong  character,  moved  to  do  something, 
has  started  on  a  career  of  success  a  good 
secondary  or  industrial  school.  Representa 
tive  are  the  Voorhees  Normal  and  Industrial 
School,  at  Denmark,  S.  C.,  founded  by 
Elizabeth  C.  Wright;  the  Daytona  Normal 
and  Industrial  Institute  for  Negro  Girls, 
founded  by  Mrs.  M.  M.  Bethune;  and  the 
Mt.  Meigs  Institute,  Mt.  Meigs,  Alabama, 
founded  by  Miss  Cornelia  Bowen.  Note 
worthy  for  its  special  missionary  emphasis 
is  the  National  Training  School  of  Wash 
ington,  of  which  Miss  Nannie  H.  Burroughs 
is  the  head.  One  of  the  most  important 
recent  developments  in  education  has  been 


INTRODUCTION  13 

the  appointment  of  a  number  of  young 
women  as  supervisors  in  county  schools 
under  the  terms  of  the  will  of  Anna  T. 
Jeanes,  a  Quaker  lady  of  Philadelphia  who 
left  a  considerable  sum  of  money  for  the 
improvement  of  the  rural  schools  of  the 
South.  In  church  work  we  all  know  the 
extent  to  which  women  have  had  to  bear  the 
burden  not  only  of  the  regular  activities  but 
also  of  the  numerous  "rallies"  that  still  so 
unfortunately  afflict  our  churches.  Deserv 
ing  of  special  mention  in  connection  with 
social  service  is  the  work  of  those  who  have 
labored  under  the  auspices  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association,  which  has 
done  so  much  for  the  moral  well-being  of  the 
great  camps  in  the  war.  In  foreign  mission 
work  one  of  the  educational  institutions  sus 
tained  primarily  by  Northern  Baptist  agen 
cies — Spelman  Seminary — stands  out  with 
distinct  prominence.  Not  only  has  Spelman 
sent  to  Africa  several  of  her  daughters  from 
this  country,  the  first  one  being  Nora  Gor 
don  in  1889;  she  has  also  educated  several 
who  have  come  to  her  from  Africa,  the  first 
being  Lena  Clark,  and  for  these  the  hope 
has  ever  been  that  they  would  return  to  their 
own  country  for  their  largest  and  most 
mature  service. 


14 


In  the  realm  of  business  the  Negro  woman 
has  stood  side  by  side  with  her  husband  in 
the  rise  to  higher  things.  In  almost  every 
instance  in  which  a  man  has  prospered,  in 
vestigation  will  show  that  his  advance  was 
very  largely  due  to  the  faith,  the  patience, 
and  the  untiring  effort  of  his  wife.  Dr. 
B.  T.  Washington,  in  his  book  The  Negro  in 
Business,  gave  several  examples.  One  of 
the  outstanding  instances  was  in  the  story 
of  Junius  G.  Groves,  famous  potato  grower 
of  Edwardsville,  Kansas.  This  man  moved 
from  his  original  home  in  Kentucky  to 
Kansas  at  the  time  of  the  well-known 
"Exodus"  of  1879,  a  migration  movement 
which  was  even  more  voluntary  on  the  part 
of  the  Negro  than  the  recent  removal  to  the 
North  on  the  part  of  so  many,  this  latter 
movement  being  in  so  many  ways  a  result  of 
war  conditions.  Mr.  Groves  in  course  of 
time  became  a  man  of  large  responsibilities 
and  means.  It  is  most  interesting,  however, 
to  go  back  to  his  early  days  of  struggle.  We 
read  as  follows:  "Soon  after  getting  the 
crop  planted  Mr.  Groves  decided  to  marry. 
When  he  reached  this  decision  he  had  but 
seventy-five  cents  in  cash,  and  had  to  borrow 
enough  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  law. 
But  he  knew  well  the  worth  and  common 
sense  of  the  woman  he  was  to  marry.  She 


INTRODUCTION  15 

was  as  poor  in  worldly  goods  as  himself ;  but 
their  poverty  did  not  discourage  them  in 
their  plans.  *  *  *  *  During  the  whole 
season  they  worked  with  never-tiring  energy, 
early  and  late ;  with  the  result  that  when  the 
crop  had  been  harvested  and  all  debts  paid 
they  had  cleared  $125.  Notwithstanding 
their  lack  of  many  necessaries  of  life,  to  say 
nothing  of  comforts,  they  decided  to  invest 
$50  of  their  earnings  in  a  lot  in  Kansas  City, 
Kansas.  They  paid  $25  for  a  milk  cow,  and 
kept  the  remaining  $50  to  be  used  in  the 
making  of  another  crop."  In  the  course  of 
a  few  years  Mr.  Groves,  with  the  help  of 
his  wTife,  now  the  mother  of  a  large  family, 
gathered  in  one  year  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  bushels  of  white  potatoes,  surpassing  all 
other  growers  in  the  world.  Similarly  was 
the  success  of  E.  C.  Berry,  a  hotel-keeper  of 
Athens,  Ohio,  due  to  his  wife.  "At  night, 
after  his  guests  had  fallen  asleep,  it  was  his 
custom  to  go  around  and  gather  up  their 
clothes  and  take  them  to  his  wife,  who  would 
add  buttons  which  were  lacking,  repair  rents, 
and  press  the  garments,  ^after  which  Mr. 
Berry  wrould  replace  them  in  the  guests' 
rooms.  Guests  who  had  received  such  treat 
ment  returned  again  and  brought  their 
friends  with  them."  In  course  of  time  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Berry  came  to  own  the  leading 


16  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

hotel  in  Athens,  one  of  fifty  rooms  and  of 
special  favor  with  commercial  travelers. 

Such  examples  could  be  multiplied  indefi 
nitely.  It  is  not  only  in  such  spheres  that 
the  worth  of  the  Negro  woman  has  been 
shown,  however.  Daily,  in  thousands  of 
homes,  in  little  stores  and  on  humble  farms, 
effort  just  as  heroic  has  been  exerted, 
though  the  result  is  not  always  so  evident. 
On  their  own  initiative  also  women  are  now 
engaging  in  large  enterprises.  The  most 
conspicuous  example  of  material  success  is 
undoubtedly  Mme.  C.  J.  Walker,  of  the 
Mme.  C.  J.  Walker  Manufacturing  Com 
pany,  of  Indianapolis  and  New  York,  a 
business  that  is  now  conducted  on  a  large 
scale  and  in  accordance  with  the  best  busi 
ness  methods  of  America.  Important  also 
in  this  connection  is  the  very  great  contribu 
tion  that  Negro  women — very  often  those 
without  education  and  opportunity  —  are 
making  in  the  ordinary  industrial  life  of  the 
country.  According  to  the  census  of  1910, 
1,047,146,  or  52  per  cent,  of  those  at  work, 
were  either  farmers  or  farm  laborers,  and 
28  per  cent,  more  were  either  cooks  or  wash 
erwomen.  In  other  words,  a  total  of  ex 
actly  80  per  cent,  were  doing  some  of  the 
hardest  and  at  the  same  time  some  of  the 
most  necessary  work  in  our  home  and  indus- 


INTRODUCTION  17 

trial  life.  These  are  workers  whose  worth 
has  never  been  fully  appreciated  by  the 
larger  public,  and  who  needed  the  heavy 
demands  of  the  great  war  to  call  attention 
to  the  actual  value  of  the  service  they  were 
rendering. 

The  changes  in  fact  brought  about  within 
the  last  few  years,  largely  as  a  result  of  war 
conditions,  are  remarkable.  As  Mary  E. 
Jackson,  writing  in  the  Crisis,  has  said: 
"Indiana  reports  [Negro  women]  in  glass 
works;  in  Ohio  they  are  found  on  the  night 
shifts  of  glass  works;  they  have  gone  into 
the  pottery  works  in  Virginia;  wood-work 
ing  plants  and  lumber  yards  have  called  for 
their  help  in  Tennessee."  She  also  quotes 
Rachel  S.  Gallagher,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  as 
saying  of  the  Negro  women  in  that  city: 
"We  find  them  on  power  sewing-machines, 
making  caps,  waists,  bags,  and  mops;  we 
find  them  doing  pressing  and  various  hand 
operations  in  these  same  shops.  They  are 
employed  in  knitting  factories  as  winders, 
in  a  number  of  laundries  on  mangles  of 
every  type,  and  in  sorting  and  marking. 
They  are  in  paper  box  factories  doing  both 
hand  and  machine  work,  in  button  factories 
on  the  button  machines,  in  packing  houses 
packing  meat,  in  railroad  yards  wiping  and 


18  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

cleaning  engines,  and  doing  sorting  in  rail 
road  shops.  One  of  our  workers  recently 
found  two  colored  girls  on  a  knotting  ma 
chine  in  a  bed  spring  factory,  putting  the 
knots  in  the  wire  springs." 

In  the  professions,  such  as  medicine  and 
law,  and  in  scholarship  as  well,  the  Negro 
woman  has  blazed  a  path.  One  year  after 
Oberlin  College  in  Ohio  was  founded  in 
1833,  thirty  years  before  the  issuing  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  trustees 
took  the  advanced  ground  of  admitting 
Negro  men  and  women  on  equal  terms  with 
other  students.  Of  the  Northern  colleges 
and  universities  Oberlin  still  leads  in  the 
number  of  its  Negro  women  graduates,  but 
in  recent  years  other  such  institutions  as 
Radcliffe,  Wellesley,  Columbia,  and  Chi 
cago  have  been  represented  in  an  increasing 
number  by  those  who  have  finished  their 
work  creditably  and  even  with  distinction  in 
many  instances.  More  and  more  each  year 
are  young  women  at  these  institutions  going 
forward  to  the  attainment  of  the  higher 
scholastic  degrees.  In  connection  with  medi 
cine  we  recall  the  work  in  the  war  of  the 
Negro  woman  in  the  related  profession  of 
nursing.  It  was  only  after  considerable  dis 
cussion  that  she  was  given  a  genuine  oppor- 


INTRODUCTION  19 

tunity  in  Red  Cross  work,  but  she  at  once 
vindicated  herself.  In  the  legal  profession 
she  has  not  only  been  admitted  to  practice 
in  various  places,  but  has  also  been  ap 
pointed  to  public  office.  It  must  be  under 
stood  that  such  positions  as  those  just  re 
marked  are  not  secured  without  a  struggle, 
but  all  told  they  indicate  that  the  race 
through  its  womanhood  is  more  and  more 
taking  part  in  the  general  life  of  the  country. 

In  keeping  with  the  romantic  quality  of 
the  race  it  was  but  natural  that  from  the  first 
there  should  have  been  special  effort  at  self- 
expression  in  literature,  music,  and  other 
forms  of  art.  The  first  Negro  woman  to 
strike  the  public  imagination  was  Phillis 
Wheatley,  who  even  as  a  young  girl  wrote 
acceptable  verse.  Her  Poems  on  Various 
Subjects  published  in  1773  at  once  at 
tracted  attention,  and  it  was  fitting  that  the 
first  Negro  woman  to  become  distin squished 
in  America  should  be  one  of  outstanding 
piety  and  nobility  of  soul.  Just  a  few  years 
before  the  Civil  War  Frances  Ellen  Wat- 
kins,  better  known  as  Mrs.  F.  E.  W.  Har 
per,  entered  upon  her  career  as  a  writer  of 
popular  poetry.  At  the  present  time  at 
tention  centers  especially  upon  Mrs.  Geor 
gia  Douglas  Johnson,  who  early  in  1918 


20  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

produced  in  The  Heart  of  a  Woman  a 
little  volume  of  delicate  and  poignantly 
beautiful  verse,  and  from  whom  greater  and 
greater  things  are  expected,  as  she  not  only 
has  the  temperament  of  an  artist  but  has 
also  undergone  a  period  of  severe  training 
in  her  chosen  field.  In  the  wider  field  of 
prose — including  especially  stories,  essays, 
and  sketches — Mrs.  Alice  Moore  Dunbar- 
Nelson  is  prominent.  In  1899  she  pro 
duced  The  Goodness  of  St.  Rocque,  and 
other  stories,  and  since  then  has  continued 
her  good  work  in  various  ways.  The  whole 
field  of  literature  is  a  wide  one,  one  natu 
rally  appealing  to  many  of  the  younger 
women,  and  one  that  with  all  its  difficulties 
and  lack  of  financial  return  does  offer  some 
genuine  reward  to  the  candidate  who  is  will 
ing  to  work  hard  and  who  does  not  seek  a 
short  cut  to  fame. 

In  music  the  race  has  produced  more 
women  of  distinction  than  in  any  other  field. 
This  was  natural,  for  the  Negro  voice  is 
world  famous.  The  pity  is  that  all  too  fre 
quently  some  of  the  most  capable  young 
women  have  not  had  the  means  to  cultivate 
their  talents  and  hence  have  fallen  by  the 
wayside.  Some  day  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a 
great  philanthropist  will  endow  a  real  con- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

servatory  at  which  such  persons  may  find 
some  genuine  opportunity  and  encourage 
ment  in  their  development  in  their  days  of 
struggle.  In  spite  of  all  the  difficulties, 
however,  there  have  been  singers  who  have 
risen  to  very  high  things  in  their  art.  Even 
before  the  Civil  War  the  race  produced  one 
of  the  first  rank  in  Elizabeth  Taylor  Green 
field,  who  came  into  prominence  in  1851. 
This  artist,  born  in  Mississippi,  was  taken 
to  Philadelphia  and  there  cared  for  by  a 
Quaker  lady.  The  young  woman  did  not 
soon  reveal  her  gift  to  her  friend,  thinking 
that  it  might  be  frowned  upon  as  something 
too  worldly.  Her  guardian  learned  of  it  by 
accident,  however,  and  one  day  surprised  her 
by  asking,  "Elizabeth,  is  it  true  that  thee  can 
sing?"  "Yes,"  replied  the  young  woman  in 
confusion.  "Let  me  hear  thee."  And  Eliza 
beth  sang ;  and  her  friend,  realizing  that  she 
had  a  voice  of  the  first  quality,  proceeded  to 
give  her  the  best  instruction  that  it  was  pos 
sible  to  get.  Elizabeth  Taylor  Greenfield 
had  a  marvelous  voice  embracing  twenty- 
seven  notes,  reaching  from  the  sonorous  bass 
of  a  baritone  to  the  highest  soprano.  A 
voice  with  a  range  of  more  than  three  oc 
taves  naturally  attracted  much  attention  in 
both  England  and  America,  and  compari 
sons  with  Jenny  Lind,  then  at  the  height  of 


22 


her  great  fame,  were  frequent.  In  the  next 
generation  arose  Madame  Selika,  a  cultured 
singer  of  the  first  rank,  and  one  who  by  her 
arias  and  operatic  work  generally,  as  well 
as  by  her  mastery  of  language,  won  great 
success  on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  well 
as  in  England  and  America.  The  careers 
of  some  later  singers  are  so  recent  as  to  be 
still  fresh  in  the  public  memory;  some  in 
fact  may  still  be  he"ard.  It  was  in  1887  that 
Flora  Batson  entered  on  the  period  of  her 
greatest  success.  She  was  a  ballad  singer 
and  her  work  at  its  best  was  of  the  sort  that 
sends  an  audience  into  the  wildest  enthusi 
asm.  In  a  series  of  temperance  meetings  in 
New  York  she  sang  for  ninety  consecutive 
nights,  with  never-failing  effect,  one  song, 
"Six  Feet  of  Earth  Make  Us  All  One  Size." 
Her  voice  exhibited  a  compass  of  three  oc 
taves,  but  even  more  important  than  its 
range  was  its  remarkable  sympathetic  qual 
ity.  Early  in  the  last  decade  of  the  century 
appeared  also  Mrs.  Sissieretta  Jones,  whose 
voice  at  once  commanded  attention  as  one  of 
unusual  richness  and  volume,  and  as  one 
exhibiting  especially  the  plaintive  quality 
ever  present  in  the  typical  Negro  voice. 

At   the   present   time   there   are   several 
promising  singers;  and  there  are  also  those 


INTRODUCTION  23 

who  in  various  ways  are  working  for  the 
general  advancement  of  the  race  in  music. 
Mrs.  E.  Azalia  Hackley,  for  some  years 
prominent  as  a  concert  soprano,  has  recently 
given  her  time  most  largely  to  the  work  of 
teaching  and  showing  the  capabilities  of  the 
Negro  voice.  Possessed  of  a  splendid 
musical  temperament,  she  has  enjoyed  the 
benefit  of  three  years  of  foreign  study  and 
generally  inspired  many  younger  singers  or 
performers.  Prominent  among  many  ex 
cellent  pianists  is  Mrs.  Hazel  Harrison 
Anderson,  who  also  has  studied  much 
abroad  and  who  has  appeared  in  many 
noteworthy  recitals.  Mrs.  Maud  Cuney 
Hare,  of  Boston,  a  concert  pianist,  has 
within  the  last  few  years  given  several  ex 
cellent  lecture-recitals  dealing  with  Afro- 
American  music. 

As  between  painting  and  sculpture  the 
women  of  the  race  have  shown  a  decided 
preference  for  sculpture.  While  there  are 
some  students  of  promise,  no  woman  has  as 
yet  achieved  distinction  on  work  of  really 
professional  quality  in  the  realm  of  painting. 
On  the  other  hand  there  have  been  three  or 
four  sculptors  of  genuine  merit.  As  early 
as  1865  Edmonia  Lewis  began  to  attract  at 
tention  by  her  busts  of  prominent  people. 


24  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  work  of  Mrs. 
May  Howard  Jackson,  of  Washington,  has 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  discerning; 
and  that  of  Mrs.  Meta  Warrick  Fuller  is 
reserved  for  special  comment. 

Any  such  review  as  this  naturally  has  its 
limitations.  We  can  indicate  only  a  few  of 
the  outstanding  individuals  here  and  there. 
At  least  enough  has  been  said,  however,  to 
show  that  the  Negro  woman  is  making  her 
way  at  last  into  every  phase  of  noble  en 
deavor.  In  the  pages  that  follow  we  shall 
attempt  to  set  forth  at  somewhat  greater 
length  the  life  and  work  of  a  few  of  those 
whose  achievement  has  been  most  signal  and 
whose  interest  in  their  sisters  has  been 
unfailing. 


IN    MEMORY    OF 

HARRIET  TUB  MAN 

BORN  A  SLAVE  IN  KAFfLAND  ABOUT  1821 

DIED  IN  AUBURN.  N.Y.  MARCH .1QTH.J913 

CALLED  THE"MOSES"OF  HER  PEOPLE-. 

DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR,  WITH  RARE 

COURAGE.  SHE  LED  OVER  THREE  HUNDRED 

NEGROES  UP  FROM  SLAVERY  TO  FREEDOM.. 

AND  RENDERED  INVALUABLE  SERVICE 

AS  NURSE  AND  SPY. 

WITH  IMPLICIT  TRUST  IN  GOD 
SHE  BRAVED  EVERY  DANGER  AND 
OVERCAME  EVERY  OBSTACLE,  WITHAL 
SHE  POSSESSED  EXTRAORDINARY 
FORESIGHT  AND  JUDGMENT  SO  THAT 
SHE  TRUTHFULLY  SAID- 

"ON  MY  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD 

I NEBBER  RUN  MY  TRAIN  OFF  DE  TRACK 

AND  I  NEBBER  LOS' A  PASSENGER: 

THIS  TABLET  IS  ERECTED  . 
BY  THE  CITIZENS  OF  AU3URN 
-19  14- 


Used  through  courtesy  of  John  Williams,  Inc.,  Bronze  Foundry  and  Iron  Works, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


HARRIET  TUBMAN 


II. 

HARRIET  TUBMAN* 

Greatest  of  all  the  heroines  of  anti-slav 
ery  was  Harriet  Tubman.  This  brave 
woman  not  only  escaped  from  bondage  her 
self,  but  afterwards  made  nineteen  distinct 
trips  to  the  South,  especially  to  Maryland, 
and  altogether  aided  more  than  three  hun 
dred  souls  in  escaping  from  their  fetters. 

Araminta  Ross,  better  known  by  the 
Christian  name  Harriet  that  she  adopted, 
and  her  married  name  of  Tubman,  was  born 
about  1821  in  Dorchester  County,  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  the  daughter  of 
Benjamin  Ross  and  Harriet  Greene,  both 
of  whom  were  slaves,  but  who  were  privi 
leged  to  be  able  to  live  their  lives  in  a  state 
of  singular  fidelity.  Harriet  had  ten  broth 
ers  and  sisters,  not  less  than  three  of  whom 
she  rescued  from  slavery;  and  in  1857,  at 
great  risk  to  herself,  she  also  took  away  to 
the  North  her  aged  father  and  mother. 


•While  this  sketch  Is  drawn  from  various  sources,  I  feel 
specially  Indebted  to  Sarah  H.  Bradford's  "Harriet,  the  Moses 
of  Her  People."  This  valuable  work  In  turn  Includes  a  scholarly 
article  taken  from  the  "Boston  Commonwealth"  of  1863  and 
loaned  to  Mrs.  Bradford  by  F.  R.  Sanborn.  This  article  is  really 
the  foundation  of  the  sketch. — B.  B. 

27 


28  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

When  Harriet  was  not  more  than  six 
years  old  she  was  taken  away  from  her 
mother  and  sent  ten  miles  away  to  learn  the 
trade  of  weaving.  Among  other  things  she 
was  set  to  the  task  of  watching  muskrat 
traps,  which  work  compelled  her  to  wade 
much  in  water.  Once  she  was  forced  to 
work  when  she  was  already  ill  with  the 
measles.  She  became  very  sick,  and  her 
mother  now  persuaded  her  master  to  let  the 
girl  come  home  for  a  while. 

Soon  after  Harriet  entered  her  teens  she 
suffered  a  misfortune  that  embarrassed  her 
all  the  rest  of  her  life.  She  had  been  hired 
out  as  a  field  hand.  It  was  the  fall  of  the 
year  and  the  slaves  were  busy  at  such  tasks 
as  husking  corn  and  cleaning  up  wheat. 
One  of  them  ran  away.  He  was  found.  The 
overseer  swore  that  he  should  be  whipped 
and  called  on  Harriet  and  some  others  that 
happened  to  be  near  to  help  tie  him.  She 
refused,  and  as  the  slave  made  his  escape  she 
placed  herself  in  a  door  to  help  to  stop  pur 
suit  of  him.  The  overseer  caught  up  a  two- 
pound  weight  and  threw  it  at  the  fugitive; 
but  it  missed  its  mark  and  struck  Harriet  a 
blow  on  the  head  that  was  almost  fatal.  Her 
skull  was  broken  and  from  this  resulted  a 
pressure  on  her  brain  which  all  her  life  left 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  29 

her  subject  to  fits  of  somnolency.  Some 
times  these  would  come  upon  her  in  the 
midst  of  a  conversation  or  any  task  at  which 
she  might  be  engaged;  then  after  a  while 
the  spell  would  pass  and  she  could  go  on  as 
before. 

After  Harriet  recovered  sufficiently  from 
her  blow  she  lived  for  five  or  six  years  in 
the  home  of  one  John  Stewart,  working  at 
first  in  the  house  but  afterwards  hiring  her 
time.  She  performed  the  most  arduous 
labor  in  order  to  get  the  fifty  or  sixty  dollars 
ordinarily  exacted  of  a  woman  in  her  situa 
tion.  She  drove  oxen,  plowed,  cut  wood, 
and  did  many  other  such  things.  With  her 
firm  belief  in  Providence,  in  her  later  years 
she  referred  to  this  work  as  a  blessing  in 
disguise  as  it  gave  her  the  firm  constitution 
necessary  for  the  trials  and  hardships  that 
were  before  her.  Sometimes  she  worked  for 
her  father,  who  was  a  timber  inspector  and 
superintended  the  cutting  and  hauling  of 
large  quantities  of  timber  for  the  Baltimore 
ship-yards.  Her  regular  task  in  this  em 
ployment  was  the  cutting  of  half  a  cord  of 
wood  a  day. 

About  1844  Harriet  was  married  to  a  free 
man  named  John  Tubman.  She  had  no 


30  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

children.  Two  years  after  her  escape  in 
1849  she  traveled  back  to  Maryland  for  her 
husband,  only  to  find  him  married  to  another 
woman  and  no  longer  caring  to  live  with 
her.  She  felt  the  blow  keenly,  but  did  not 
despair  and  more  and  more  gave  her 
thought  to  what  was  to  be  the  great  work 
of  her  life. 

It  was  not  long  after  her  marriage  that 
Harriet  began  seriously  to  consider  the  mat 
ter  of  escape  from  bondage.  Already  in 
her  mind  her  people  were  the  Israelites  in 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  far  off  in  the  North 
somewhere  was  the  land  of  Canaan.  In 
1849  the  master  of  her  plantation  died,  and 
word  passed  around  that  at  any  moment  she 
and  two  of  her  brothers  were  to  be  sold  to 
the  far  South.  Harriet,  now  twenty-four 
years  old,  resolved  to  put  her  long  cherished 
dreams  into  effect.  She  held  a  consultation 
with  her  brothers  and  they  decided  to  start 
with  her  at  once,  that  very  night,  for  the 
North.  She  could  not  go  away,  however, 
without  giving  some  intimation  of  her  pur 
pose  to  the  friends  she  was  leaving  behind. 
As  it  was  not  advisable  for  slaves  to  be  seen 
too  much  talking  together,  she  went  among 
her  old  associates  singing  as  follows: 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  31 


When  dat  ar  ol'  chariot  comes 

I'm  gwine  to  leabe  you; 
I'm  boun'  for  de  Promised  Land; 

Frien's,  I'm  gwine  to  leabe  you. 

I'm  sorry,  frien's,  to  leabe  you; 

Fafewell!    oh,  farewell! 
But  I'll  meet  you  in  de  mornin'; 

Farewell!    oh,  farewell! 

I'll  meet  you  in  de  mornin' 

When  you  reach  de  Promised  Land; 

On  de  Oder  side  of  Jordan, 

For  I'm  boun'  for  de  Promised  Land. 

The  brothers  started  with  her;  but  the 
way  was  unknown,  the  North  was  far 
away,  and  they  were  constantly  in  terror 
of  recapture.  They  turned  back,  and  Har 
riet,  after  watching  their  retreating  forms, 
again  fixed  her  eyes  on  the  north  star. 
"I  had  reasoned  dis  out  in  my  min',"  said 
she;  "there  was  one  of  two  things  I  had  a 
right  to,  liberty  or  death.  If  I  could  not 
have  one,  I  would  have  de  other,  for  no  man 
should  take  me  alive.  I  would  fight  for  my 
liberty  as  long  as  my  strength  lasted,  and 
when  de  time  came  for  me  to  go,  the  Lord 
would  let  them  take  me." 

"And  so  without  money,  and  without 
friends,"  says  Mrs.  Bradford,  "she  started 
on  through  unknown  regions;  walking  by 
night,  hiding  by  day,  but  always  conscious 


32  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

of  an  invisible  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  of 
fire  by  night,  under  the  guidance  of  which 
she  journeyed  or  rested.  Without  knowing 
whom  to  trust,  or  how  near  the  pursuers 
might  be,  she  carefully  felt  her  way,  and  by 
her  native  cunning,  or  by  God-given  wisdom 
she  managed  to  apply  to  the  right  people  for 
food,  and  sometimes  for  shelter;  though 
often  her  bed  was  only  the  cold  ground,  and 
her  watchers  the  stars  of  night.  After 
many  long  and  weary  days  of  travel,  she 
found  that  she  had  passed  the  magic  line 
which  then  divided  the  land  of  bondage  from 
the  land  of  freedom."  At  length  she  came  to 
Philadelphia,  where  she  found  work  and  the 
opportunity  to  earn  a  little  money.  It  was 
at  this  time,  in  1851,  after  she  had  been  em 
ployed  for  some  months,  that  she  went  back 
to  Maryland  for  her  husband  only  to  find 
that  he  had  not  been  true. 

In  December,  1850,  she  had  visited  Balti 
more  and  brought  away  a  sister  and  two 
children.  A  few  months  afterwards  she  took 
away  a  brother  and  two  other  men.  In  De 
cember,  1851,  she  led  out  a  party  of  eleven, 
among  them  being  another  brother  and  his 
wife.  With  these  she  journeyed  to  Canada, 
for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  now  in 
force  and,  as  she  quaintly  said,  there  was 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  33 

no  safety  except  "under  the  paw  of  the 
British  Lion."  The  winter,  however,  was 
hard  on  the  poor  fugitives,  who  unused  to 
the  climate  of  Canada,  had  to  chop  wood  in 
the  forests  in  the  snow.  Often  they  were 
frost-bitten,  hungry,  and  almost  always 
poorly  clad.  But  Harriet  was  caring  for 
them.  She  kept  house  for  her  brother,  and 
the  fugitives  boarded  with  her.  She  begged 
for  them  and  prayed  for  them,  and  some 
how  got  them  through  the  hard  winter.  In 
the  spring  she  returned  to  the  States,  as 
usual  working  in  hotels  and  families  as  a 
cook.  In  1852  she  once  more  went  to 
Maryland,  this  time  bringing  away  nine 
fugitives. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  those  who 
started  on  the  journey  northward  were 
always  strong-spirited  characters.  The 
road  was  rough  and  attended  by  dangers 
innumerable.  Sometimes  the  fugitives  grew 
faint-hearted  and  wanted  to  turn  back. 
Then  would  come  into  play  the  pistol  that 
Harriet  always  carried  with  her.  "Dead 
niggers  tell  no  tales,"  said  she,  pointing  it 
at  them;  "you  go  on  or  die!"  By  this  he 
roic  method  she  forced  many  to  go  onward 
and  win  the  goal  of  freedom. 


34  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

Unfailing  was  Harriet  Tubman's  confi 
dence  in  God.  A  customary  form  of  prayer 
for  her  was,  "O  Lord,  you've  been  with  me 
in  six  troubles;  be  with  me  in  the  seventh." 
On  one  of  her  journeys  she  came  with  a 
party  of  fugitives  to  the  home  of  a  Negro 
who  had  more  than  once  assisted  her  and 
whose  house  was  one  of  the  regular  stations 
on  the  so-called  Underground  Railroad. 
Leaving  her  party  a  little  distance  away 
Harriet  went  to  the  door  and  gave  the  pe 
culiar  rap  that  was  her  regular  signal.  Not 
meeting  with  a  ready  response,  she  knocked 
several  times.  At  length  a  window  was 
raised  and  a  white  man  demanded  roughly 
what  she  wanted.  When  Harriet  asked  for 
her  friend  she  was  informed  that  he  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  for  assisting  Negroes. 
The  situation  was  dangerous.  Day  was 
breaking  and  something  had  to  be  done  at 
once.  A  prayer  revealed  to  Harriet  a  place 
of  refuge.  Outside  of  the  town  she  remem 
bered  that  there  was  a  little  island  in  a 
swamp,  with  much  tall  grass  upon  it. 
Hither  she  conducted  her  party,  carrying  in 
a  basket  two  babies  that  had  been  drugged. 
All  were  cold  and  hungry  in  the  wet  grass; 
still  Harriet  prayed  and  waited  for  deliver 
ance.  How  relief  came  she  never  knew;  she 
felt  that  it  was  not  necessarily  her  business 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  35 

to  know.  After  they  had  waited  through 
the  day,  however,  at  dusk  there  came  slowly 
along  the  pathway  on  the  edge  of  the 
swamp  a  man  clad  in  the  garb  of  a  Quaker. 
He  seemed  to  be  talking  to  himself,  but 
Harriet's  sharp  ears  caught  the  words:  "My 
wagon  stands  in  the  barnyard  of  the  next 
farm  across  the  way.  The  horse  is  in  the 
stable;  the  harness  hangs  on  a  nail;"  and 
then  the  man  was  gone.  When  night  came 
Harriet  stole  forth  to  the  place  designated, 
and  found  not  only  the  wagon  but  also 
abundant  provisions  in  it,  so  that  the  whole 
party  was  soon  on  its  way  rejoicing.  In  the 
next  town  dwelt  a  Quaker  whom  Harriet 
knew  and  who  readily  took  charge  of  the 
horse  and  wagon  for  her. 

•  Naturally  the  work  of  such  a  woman 
could  not  long  escape  the  attention  of  the 
abolitionists.  She  became  known  to  Thomas 
Garrett,  the  great-hearted  Quaker  of  Wil 
mington,  who  aided  not  less  than  three  thou 
sand  fugitives  to  escape,  and  also  to  Gerrit 
Smith,  Wendell  Phillips,  William  H. 
Seward,  F.  B.  Sanborn,  and  many  other 
notable  men  interested  in  the  emancipation 
of  the  Xegro.  From  time  to  time  she  was 
supplied  with  money,  but  she  never  spent 
this  for  her  own  use,  setting  it  aside  in  case 


36  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

of  need  on  the  next  one  of  her  journeys. 
In  her  earlier  years,  however,  before  she 
became  known,  she  gave  of  her  own  slender 
means  for  the  work. 

Between  1852  and  1857  she  made  but  one 
or  two  journeys,  because  of  the  increasing 
vigilance  of  slaveholders  and  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  Great  rewards  were  offered  for 
her  capture  and  she  was  several  times  on  the 
point  of  being  taken,  but  always  escaped  by 
her  shrewd  wit  and  what  she  considered 
warnings  from  heaven.  While  she  was  in 
tensely  practical,  she  was  also  a  most  firm 
believer  in  dreams.  In  1857  she  made  her 
most  venturesome  journey,  this  time  taking 
with  her  to  the  North  her  old  parents  who 
were  no  longer  able  to  walk  such  distances 
as  she  was  forced  to  go  by  night.  Accord 
ingly  she  had  to  hire  a  wagon  for  them,  and 
it  took  all  her  ingenuity  to  get  them  through 
Maryland  and  Delaware.  At  length,  how 
ever,  she  got  them  to  Canada,  where  they 
spent  the  winter.  As  the  climate  was  too 
rigorous,  however,  she  afterwards  brought 
them  down  to  New  York,  and  settled  them 
in  a  home  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  that  she  had 
purchased  on  very  reasonable  terms  from 
Secretary  Seward.  Somewhat  later  a  mort 
gage  on  the  place  had  to  be  lifted  and 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  37 

Harriet  now  made  a  noteworthy  visit  to 
Boston,  returning  with  a  handsome  sum 
toward  the  payment  of  her  debt.  At  this 
time  she  met  John  Brown  more  than  once, 
seems  to  have  learned  something  of  his 
plans,  and  after  the  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry 
and  the  execution  of  Brown  she  glorified 
him  as  a  hero,  her  veneration  even  becoming 
religious.  Her  last  visit  to  Maryland  was 
made  in  December,  1860,  and  in  spite  of  the 
agitated  condition  of  the  country  and  the 
great  watchfulness  of  slaveholders  she 
brought  away  with  her  seven  fugitives,  one 
of  them  an  infant. 

After  the  war  Harriet  Tubman  made 
Auburn  her  home,  establishing  there  a  ref 
uge  for  aged  Negroes.  She  married  again, 
so  that  she  is  sometimes  referred  to  as 
Harriet  Tubman  Davis.  She  died  at  a  very 
advanced  age  March  10,  1913.  On  Friday, 
June  12,  1914,  a  tablet  in  her  honor  was  un 
veiled  at  the  Auditorium  in  Albany.  It  was 
provided  by  the  Cayuga  County  Historical 
Association,  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington 
was  the  chief  speaker  of  the  occasion,  and 
the  ceremonies  were  attended  by  a  great 
crowd  of  people. 

The  tributes  to  this  heroic  woman  were 
remarkable.  Wendell  Phillips  said  of  her: 


38  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

"In  my  opinion  there  are  few  captains,  per 
haps  few  colonels,  who  have  done  more  for 
the  loyal  cause  since  the  war  began,  and  few 
men  who  did  before  that  time  more  for  the 
colored  race  than  our  fearless  and  most  sa 
gacious  friend,  Harriet."  F.  B.  Sanborn 
wrote  that  what  she  did  "could  scarcely  be 
credited  on  the  best  authority."  William  H. 
Seward,  who  labored,  though  unsuccess 
fully,  to  get  a  pension  for  her  granted  by 
Congress,  consistently  praised  her  noble 
spirit.  Abraham  Lincoln  gave  her  ready 
audience  and  lent  a  willing  ear  to  whatever 
she  had  to  say.  Frederick  Douglass  wrote 
to  her:  "The  difference  between  us  is  very 
marked.  Most  that  I  have  done  and  suf 
fered  in  the  service  of  our  cause  has  been  in 
public,  and  I  have  received  much  encourage 
ment  at  every  step  of  the  way.  You,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  labored  in  a  private  way. 
I  have  wrought  in  the  day — you  in  the  night. 
I  have  had  the  applause  of  the  crowd  and  the 
satisfaction  that  comes  of  being  approved  by 
the  multitude,  while  the  most  that  you  have 
done  has  been  witnessed  by  a  few  trembling, 
scarred,  and  footsore  bondmen  and  women, 
whom  you  have  led  out  of  the  house  of  bond 
age,  and  whose  heartfelt  'God  bless  you'  has 
been  your  only  reward." 


HARRIET  TUBMAN  39 

Of  such  mould  was  Harriet  Tubman, 
philanthropist  and  patriot,  bravest  and  no 
blest  of  all  the  heroines  of  freedom. 


NORA  A.  GORDON 


NORA  GORDON 


III. 
NORA  GORDON 

This  is  the  story  of  a  young  woman  who 
had  not  more  than  ordinary  advantages,  but 
who  in  our  own  day  by  her  love  for  Christ 
and  her  zeal  in  his  service  was  swept  from 
her  heroic  labor  into  martyrdom. 

When  Nora  Gordon  went  from  Spelman 
Seminary  as  a  missionary  to  the  Congo,  she 
had  the  hope  that  in  some  little  way  she 
might  be  used  for  the  furtherance  of  the 
Master's  kingdom.  She  could  hardly  have 
foreseen  that  she  would  start  in  her  beloved 
school  a  glorious  tradition;  and  still  less 
could  she  have  seen  the  marvellous  changes 
taking  place  in  the  Africa  of  the  present. 
She  had  boundless  faith,  however, — faith  in 
God  and  in  the  ultimate  destiny  of  her  peo 
ple.  In  that  faith  she  lived,  and  for  that 
faith  she  died. 

Nora  Antonia  Gordon  was  born  in  Co 
lumbus,  Georgia,  August  25,  1866.  After 


44  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

receiving  her  early  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  La  Grange,  in  the  fall  of  1882  she 
came  to  Spelman  Seminary.  It  was  not 
long  before  her  life  became  representative 
of  the  transforming  power  of  Christianity. 
Being  asked,  "Do  you  love  Christ?"  she  an 
swered  "Yes";  but  when  there  came  the 
question,  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  she  replied 
"No."  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  she 
gained  firmer  faith,  and  two  months  after 
her  entrance  at  Spelman  she  was  definitely 
converted.  Now  followed  seven  years  of 
intense  activity  and  growth — of  study,  of 
summer  teaching,  of  talks  before  temper 
ance  societies,  of  service  of  any  possible 
sort  for  the  Master.  She  brought  to  Christ 
every  girl  who  was  placed  to  room  with  her. 
A  classmate  afterwards  testified  of  her  that 
the  girls  always  regarded  Nora  somewhat 
differently  from  the  others.  She  was  the 
counsellor  of  her  friends,  ever  ready  with 
sweet  words  of  comfort,  and  yet  ever  a 
cheerful  companion.  In  one  home  in  which 
she  lived  for  a  while  she  asked  the  privilege 
of  having  prayer.  The  man  of  the  house  at 
first  refused  to  kneel  and  the  woman  seemed 
not  interested.  In  course  of  time,  however, 
the  wife  was  won  and  then  the  man  also 
knelt.  At  another  time  she  wrote,  "Twenty- 
six  of  my  scholars  were  baptized  to-day;" 


NORA  GORDON  45 

and  a  little  later  she  »aid,  "Ten  mor«  have 
been  added." 

In  1885  Xora  Gordon  completed  her 
course  in  the  Industrial  Department,  in 
1886  the  Elementary  Normal,  and  in  1888 
the  Higher  Normal  Course.  Her  gradua 
tion  essay  was  on  the  rather  old  and  sopho- 
moric  subject,  "The  Influence  of  Woman 
on  National  Character;"  but  in  the  intensity 
of  her  convictions  and  her  words  there  was 
nothing  ordinary.  She  said  in  part:  "Let 
no  woman  feel  that  life  to  her  means  simply 
living ;  but  let  her  rather  feel  that  she  has  a 
special  mission  assigned  her,  which  none 
other  of  God's  creatures  can  perform.  It 
may  be  that  she  is  placed  in  some  rude  little 
hut  as  mother  and  wife;  if  so,  she  can  dig 
nify  her  position  by  turning  every  hut  into 
a  palace,  and  bringing  not  only  her  own 
household,  but  the  whole  community,  into 
the  sunlight  of  God's  love.  Such  women  are 
often  unnoticed  by  the  world  in  general,  and 
do  not  receive  the  appreciation  due  them; 
yet  we  believe  such  may  be  called  God's 
chosen  agents."  Finally,  "we  feel  that 
woman  is  under  a  twofold  obligation  to  con 
secrate  her  whole  being  to  Christ.  Our  peo 
ple  are  to  be  educated  and  christianized  and 


46  WOMEX  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

the  heathen  brought  home  to  God.    Woman 
must  take  the  lead  in  this  great  work." 

After  her  graduation  in  1888  Xora  Gor 
don  was  appointed  to  teach  in  the  public 
schools  of  Atlanta.  She  soon  resigned  this 
work,  however,  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
great  mission  of  her  life.  The  secretary  of 
tiie  Society  of  the  West  wrote  to  Spelman 
to  inquire  if  there  was  any  one  who  could  go 
to  assist  Miss  Fleming,  a  missionary  at  work 
in  Palabala  in  the  Congo.  Four  names  were 
sent,  and  the  choice  of  the  board  was  Xora 
A.  Gordon-  The  definite  appointment 
came  in  January,  1889.  On  Sunday  even 
ing,  February  17,  an  impressive  missionary 
service  was  held  in  the  chapel  at  Spelman. 
Interesting  items  were  given  by  the  students 
with  reference  to  the  slave- trade  in  East 
Africa  and  the  efforts  being  made  for  its 
suppression,  also  with  reference  to  Moham 
medanism,  the  spiritual  awakening  among 
the  Zulus,  and  the  mission  stations  estab 
lished,  especially  those  on  the  Congo.  Sev 
eral  letters  were  read,  one  from  Miss  Flem 
ing  exciting  the  most  intense  interest;  and 
throughout  the  meeting  was  the  thought 
that  Xora  Gordon  was  also  soon  to  go  to 
Africa,  On  March  6  a  farewell  service  was 
held,  and  attended  by  a  great  crowd  of  peo- 


NORA  GORDON  47 

pie,  among  them  the  whole  family  of  the 
consecrated  young  woman;  and  she  sailed 
March  16,  1889. 

First  of  all  she  went  to  London,  tarrying 
at  the  Missionary  Training  Institute  con 
ducted  by  Rey.  and  Mrs.  H.  Grattan  Guin 
ness.  Under  date  April  11  she  wrote:  "It 
has  been  so  trying  to  remain  here  so  long 
waiting.  I  feel  that  this  is  the  dear  Lord's 
first  lesson  to  me  in  patience.  I  am  thank 
ful  to  say  that  I  feel  profited  by  my  stay. 
*  *  *  *  Yesterday  coming  from  the 
city  we  saw  a  number  of  flags  hanging  across 
the  street,  and  among  them  was  the  United 
States  flag.  Xeyer  before  did  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  seem  so  beautiful.  I  am  glad  Miss 
Groyer  put  one  in  my  box.  *  *  *  *  I 
do  praise  God  for  eyery  step  I  get  nearer 
to  my  future  home.  We  expect  to  sail  next 
Wednesday,  April  17,  from  Rotterdam  on 
the  steamer  African,  Dutch  line.  We  hope 
to  get  to  the  Congo  in  three  weeks." 

For  two  years  she  labored  at  Palabala, 
frequently  writing  letters  home  and  occa 
sionally  sending  back  to  her  beloved  Spel- 
man  a  box  of  curios.  Said  she  of  those 
among  whom  she  worked:  "When  the  peo 
ple  are  first  gathered  into  a  chapel  for  school 


48  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

or  religious  services,  it  is  sad  and  amusing 
to  see  how  hard  they  try  to  know  just  what 
to  do,  a  number  sitting  with  their  backs  to 
the  preacher  or  teacher.  When  the  teacher 
reproves  a  child,  every  man,  ,woman,  and 
child  feels  it  his  or  her  duty  to  yell  out  too 
at  the  offender  and  tell  him  to  obey  the 
teacher.  Often  in  the  midst  of  a  sermon  a 
man  in  the  congregation  will  call  out  to  the 
preacher,  'Take  away  your  lies,'  or  'We  do 
not  believe  you,'  or  'How  can  this  or  that 
be?'  One  of  the  first  workers,  after  speak 
ing  to  a  crowd  of  heathen,  asked  them  all 
to  close  their  eyes  and  bow  their,  heads  while 
he  would  pray  to  God.  When  the  mission 
ary  had  finished  his  prayer  and  opened  his 
eyes,  every  person  had  stealthily  left  the 
place."  Then  followed, a  detail  of  the  atroci 
ties  in  the  Congo  and  of  the  encounters  be 
tween  the  natives  and  the  Belgian  officers, 
and  last  of  all  came  the  pertinent  comment : 
"The  Congo  missionary's  work  is  twofold. 
He. must  civilize,  as  well  as  Christianize,  the 
people." 

Early  in  1891  Nora  Gordon,  sadly  in  need 
of  rest  and  refreshment,  went  from  Pala- 
bala  for  a  little  stay  at  Lukungu.  Hither 
had  come  Clara  t  A.  Howard,  Spelman's 
second  representative,  under  appointment 


NORA  GORDON  49 

of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Soci 
ety^  of  the  East.  Lukungu  is  a  station  two 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Congo,  in  a  (  populous  district,  and 
was  the  center  from  which  numerous  other 
schools  and  churches  sprang.  The  work 
was  in  charge  of  Mr.  Hoste,  an  English 
man,  who,  when  Miss  Gordon  wrote  of  him 
in  1894,  had  spent  ten  years  on  the  Congo 
without  going  home.  Other  men  were  as 
sociated  with  him,  while  the  elementary 
schools,  the  care  of  the  boys  and  girls,  and 
work  among  the  women,  naturally  fell  to 
the  women  missionaries.  A  little  later  in 
1891  Nora  Gordon  left  Palabala  perma 
nently  to  engage  in  the  work  at  Lukungu. 
Under  date  September  25  she  wrote  to  her 
friends  back  home:  "Doubtless  Clara  has 
told  you  of  my  change  to  this  place.  You 
can  not  imagine  how  glad  we  are  to  be  to 
gether  here.  I  have  charge  of  the  printing- 
office  and  help  in  the  afternoon  school.  I 
am  well,  happy,  and  am  enjoying  my  work. 
In  the  office  I  have  few  conveniences  and 
really  not  the  things  we  need.  Mr.  Hoste 
has  written  the  first  arithmetic  in  this  lan 
guage  and  I  am  now  putting  it  up.  I  was 
obliged  to  stop  work  on  it  to-day  because 
my  figures  in  type  gave  out,  and  you  know 


50  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

we  have  no  shops  in  this  land.    My  boys  in 
the  office  are  doing  nicely." 

Thus  she  worked  on  for  two  years  more — 
hoping,  praying,  trusting.  ,  By  1893  her 
health  was  in  such  condition  that  it  was 
deemed  wise  for  her  to  return  to  America. 
So  she  did,  and  she  brought  back  two  na 
tive  girls  with  her.  All  the  while,  however, 
her  chief  thought  was  upon  the  work  to 
which  she  had  given  herself,  and  she  con 
stantly  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  she 
might  be  able  to  go  back  to  Africa.  In  1895 
she  became  the  wife  of  Rev.  S.  C.  Gordon, 
who  was  connected  with  the  English  Bap 
tist  Mission  at  Stanley  Pool.  She  sailed 
with  her  husband  from  Boston  in  July  and 
reached  the  Congo  again  in  August.  The 
station  was  unique.  It  was  an  old  and  well 
established  mission,  the  center  of  several 
others  in  the  surrounding  country.  It  had 
excellent  brick  houses,  broad  avenues  and 
good  fruit-trees,  and  the  students  were 
above  the  average  in  intelligence.  But  soon 
the  shadow  fell.  Nora  Gordon  herself  saw 
much  of  the  well  known  Belgian  atrocities 
in  the  Congo.  She  saw  houses  burned  and 
the  natives  themselves  driven  out  by  the 
state  officials.  They  crossed  over  into  the 
French  Congo ;  but  hither  Protestants  were 


NORA  GORDON  51 

not  allowed  to  come  to  preach  to  them.  In 
spite  of  the  great  heartache,  however,  and 
declining  health  the  heroic  woman  worked 
on,  giving  to  those  for  whom  she  labored  her 
tenderest  love.  Seven  months  after  the 
death  of  her  second  child  a  change  was  again 
deemed  necessary,  and  she  once  more  turned 
her  face  homeward.  After  two  months  in 
Belgium  and  England  she  came  again  to 
America,  and  to  Spelman.  But  her  strength 
was  now  all  spent.  She  died  at  Spelman 
January  26,  1901.  She  was  only  thirty- 
four  ;  but  who  can  measure  in  years  the  love 
and  faith,  the  hope  and  sorrow,  of  such  a 
life? 

Nora  Gordon  started  a  tradition,  S  pel- 
man's  richest  heritage.  Three  other  gradu 
ates  followed  her.  Clara  Howard  was  in 
course  of  time  forced  by  the  severe  fevers 
to  give  up  her  work,  and  she  now  labors  at 
home  in  the  service  of  her  Alma  Mater. 
Ada  Jackson  became  the  second  wife  of 
Rev.  S.  C.  Gordon  and  also  died  in  service. 
Emma  B.  DeLany  was  commissioned  in 
1900  and  still  labors — in  recent  years  with 
larger  and  larger  success — in  Liberia.  With 
in  two  or  three  years  of  Nora  Gordon's  re 
turn  in  1893,  moreover,  not  less  than  five  na 
tive  African  girls  had  come  to  Spelman.  The 


52  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

spirit  still  abides,  and  if  the  way  were  just 
a  little  clearer  doubtless  many  other  gradu 
ates  would  go.  Even  as  it  is,  however,  the 
blessing  to  the  school  has  been  illimitable. 


Such  have  been  the  workers,  such  the  pio 
neers.  To  what,  end  is  the  love,  the  labor — 
the  loneliness,  the  yearning? 

It  is  now  nearly  five  hundred  years  since 
a  prince  of  Portugal  began  the  slave-trade 
on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  Within  two 
hundred  years  all  of  the  leading  countries 
of  western  Europe  had  joined  in  the  iniqui 
tous  traffic,  and  when  England  in  1713  drew 
up  with  France  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  she 
deemed  the  slave-trade  of  such  importance 
that  she  insisted  upon  an  article  that  gave 
her  a  practical  monopoly  of  it.  Before  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  the 
voice  of  conscience  began  to  be  heard  in 
England,  and  science  also  began  to  be  inter 
ested  in  the  great  undeveloped  continent 
lying  to  the  South.  It  remained  for  the 
work  of  David  Livingstone,  however,  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  really  to 
reveal  Africa  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  This 
intrepid  explorer  and  missionary  in  a  re 
markable  series  of  journeys  not  only  trav- 


NORA  GORDON  53 

ersed  the  continent  from  the  extreme  South 
to  Loanda  on  the  West  Coast  and  Quili- 
mane  on  the  East  Coast;  he  not  only  made 
known  the  great  lake  system  of  Central 
Africa;  but  he  left  behind  him  a  memory 
that  has  blessed  everyone  who  has  followed 
in  his  steps.  Largely  as  a  result  of  his  work 
and  that  of  his  successor,  Stanley,  a  great 
congress  met  in  Berlin  in  1884  for  the  par 
tition  of  Africa  among  the  great  nations  of 
Europe.  Unfortunately  the  diplomats  at 
this  meeting  were  not  actuated  by  the  noble 
impulses  that  had  moved  Livingstone,  so 
that  more  and  more  there  was  evident  a  mad 
scramble  for  territory.  France  had  already 
gained  a  firm  foothold  in  the  northwest,  and 
England  was  not  only  firmly  intrenched  in 
the  South  but  had  also  established  a  rather 
undefined  protectorate  over  Egypt.  Ger 
many  now  in  1884  entered  the  field  and  in 
German  East  Africa,  German  Southwest 
Africa,  Kamerun,  and  the  smaller  territory 
of  Togoland  in  the  West  ultimately  ac 
quired  a  total  of  nearly  a  million  square 
miles,  or  one-eleventh  of  the  continent.  All 
of  this  she  lost  in  the  course  of  the  recent 
great  war.  Naturally  she  has  desired  to  re 
gain  this  land,  but  at  the  time  of  writing 
(November,  1918)  there  is  no  likelihood  of 
her  doing  so,  a  distinguished  Englishman, 


54  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

Mr.  Balfour,  the  foreign  secretary,  having 
declared  that  under  no  circumstances  can 
Germany's  African  colonies  be  returned  to 
her,  as  such  return  would  endanger  the  se 
curity  of  the  British  empire,  and  that  is  to 
say,  the  security  of  the  world.  This  prob 
lem  is  but  typical  of  the  larger  political 
questions  that  press  for  settlement  in  the 
new  Africa.  Whatever  the  solution  may  be, 
one  or  two  facts  stand  out  clearly.  One  is 
that  Africa  can  no  longer  rest  in  undis 
turbed  slumber.  A  terrible  war,  the  most 
ruinous  in  the  history  of  humanity,  has 
strained  to  the  utmost  the  resources  of  all 
the  great  powers  of  the  world.  Where  so 
much  has  been  spent  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  the  richest,  the  most  fertile,  land  in 
the  world  will  indefinitely  be  allowed  to  re 
main  undeveloped.  Along  with  material  de 
velopment  must  go  also  the  education  and 
the  spiritual  culture  of  the  natives  on  a  scale 
undreamed  of  before.  In  this  training  such 
an  enlightened  country  as  England  will 
naturally  play  a  leading  role,  and  America 
too  will  doubtless  be  called  on  to  help  in 
more  ways  than  one.  It  must  not  be  sup 
posed,  however,  that  the  task  is  not  one  of 
enormous  difficulties.  As  far  as  we  have 
advanced  in  our  missionary  activities  in 
America,  we  have  hardly  made  a  beginning 


NORA  GORDON  55 

in  the  great  task  of  the  proper  development 
of  Africa.  Here  are  approximately  175,- 
000,000  natives  to  be  trained  and  Christian 
ized.  Let  us  not  make  the  common  mis 
take  of  supposing  that  they  are  all  ignorant 
and  degraded  savages.  Nothing  could  be 
farther  from  the  truth.  Many  individuals 
have  had  the  benefit  of  travel  and  study  in 
Europe  and  more  and  more  are  themselves 
appreciating  the  great  problems  before  their 
country.  It  is  true,  however,  that  the  great 
mass  of  the  population  is  yet  to  be  reached. 
In  the  general  development  delicate  ques 
tions  of  racial  contact  are  to  be  answered. 
Unfortunately,  in  the  attitude  of  the  Euro 
pean  colonist  toward  the  native,  South 
Africa  has  a  race  problem  even  more  stern 
than  that  of  our  own  Southern  states.  As 
for  religion  we  not  only  find  paganism  and 
Mohammedanism,  but  we  also  see  Catholi 
cism  arrayed  against  Protestantism,  and 
perhaps  most  interesting  of  all,  a  definite 
movement  toward  the  enhancement  of  a 
native  Ethiopian  church,  with  the  motto 
"Africa  for  the  Africans."  Let  us  add  to 
all  this  numerous  social  problems,  such  as 
polygamy,  the  widespread  sale  of  rum,  and 
all  the  train  of  African  superstition,  and  we 
shall  see  that  any  one  who  works  in  Africa  in 
the  new  day  must  not  only  be  a  person  of 


56  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

keen  intelligence  and  Christian  character, 
but  also  one  with  some  genuine  vision  and 
statesmanship.  Workers  of  this  quality,  if 
they  can  be  found,  will  be  needed  not  by  the 
scores  or  hundreds,  but  by  the  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands.  No  larger  mission  could 
come  to  a  young  Negro  in  America  trained 
in  Christian  study  than  to  make  his  or  her 
life  a  part  of  the  redemption  of  the  great 
fatherland.  The  salvation  of  Africa  is  at 
once  the  most  pressing  problem  before  either 
the  Negro  race  or  the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 
Such  a  worker  as  we  have  tried  to  portray 
was  Nora  Gordon.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
not  one  but  thousands  like  her  will  arise. 
Even  now  we  can  see  the  beginning  of  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy,  "Princes  shall 
come  out  of  Egypt;  Ethiopia  shall  soon 
stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God." 


META  WARRICK  FULLER 


META  WARRICK  FULLER 


I 

,-• 


IV. 

META  WARRICK  FULLER* 

The  state  of  Massachusetts  has  always 
been  famous  for  its  history  and  literature, 
and  especially  rich  in  tradition  is  the  region 
around  Boston.  On  one  side  is  Charles- 
town,  visited  yearly  by  thousands  who  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument. 
Across  the  Charles  River  is  Cambridge,  the 
home  of  Harvard  University,  and  Long 
fellow,  and  Lowell,  and  numerous  other 
men  whose  work  has  become  a  part  of  the 
nation's  heritage.  If  one  will  ride  on  through 
Cambridge  and  North  Cambridge  and  Ar 
lington,  he  will  come  to  Lexington,  where 
he  will  find  in  the  little  Lexington  Common 
one  of  the  most  charming  spots  of  ground 
in  America.  Overlooking  this  he  will  see 
the  Harrington  House,  and  all  around  other 
memorials  of  the  Revolution.  Taking  the 
car  again  and  riding  about  seven  miles  more 
he  will  come  to  Concord,  and  here  he  will 
catch  still  more  of  the  flavor  of  the  eight- 


•For  the  further  pursuit  of  this  and  related  subjects  th« 
attention  of  the  reader  is  Invited  to  the  author's  "The  Negro  In 
Literature  and  Art"  (Duffield  &  Co.,  New  York,  N.  T.,  1811). 

59 


60  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

eenth  century.  Walking  from  the  center  of 
the  town  down  Monument  Street  (he  must 
walk  now ;  there  is  no  trolley,  and  a  carriage 
or  automobile  does  not  permit  one  to  linger 
by  the  wayside),  he  will  come  after  a  while 
to  the  Old  Manse,  once  the  home  of  Emerson 
and  of  Hawthorne,  and  then  see  just  around 
the  corner  the  Concord  Bridge  and  the 
statue  of  the  Minute  Man.  There  is  a  new 
bridge  now,  one  of  concrete ;  the  old  wooden 
one,  so  long  beloved,  at  length  became  un 
safe  and  had  to  be  replaced.  In  another 
direction  from  the  center  of  the  town  runs 
Lexington  Road,  within  about  half  a  mile 
down  which  one  will  see  the  later  homes  of 
Emerson  and  Hawthorne  as  well  as  that 
of  Louisa  May  Alcott.  Near  the  Alcott 
House,  back  among  the  trees,  is  a  quaint 
little  structure  much  like  a  Southern  coun 
try  schoolhouse  —  the  so-called  Concord 
School  of  Philosophy,  in  which  Emerson 
once  spoke.  It  is  all  a  beautiful  country- 
beautiful  most  of  all  for  its  unseen  glory. 
One  gives  himself  up  to  reflection ;  he  muses 
on  Evangeline  and  the  Great  Stone  Face 
and  on  the  heroic  dead  who  did  not  die  in 
vain — until  a  lumbering  truck-car  on  the 
road  calls  him  back  from  it  all  to  the  work 
aday  world  of  men. 


META  WARRICK  FULLER  61 

It  is  in  this  state  of  Massachusetts,  so 
rich  in  its  tradition,  that  there  resides  the 
subject  of  the  present  sketch.  About  half 
way  between  Boston  and  Worcester,  in  the 
quiet,  homelike  town  of  Framingham,  on  a 
winding  road  just  off  the  main  street,  lives 
Meta  Warrick  Fuller,  the  foremost  sculptor 
of  the  Negro  race. 

There  are  three  little  boys  in  the  family. 
They  keep  their  mother  very  busy ;  but  they 
also  make  her  very  happy.  Buttons  have 
to  be  sewed  on  and  dinners  have  to  be  pre 
pared  for  the  children  of  an  artist  just  as 
well  as  for  those  of  other  people;  and  help 
is  not  always  easy  to  get.  But  the  father, 
Dr.  S.  C.  Fuller,  a  distinguished  physician, 
is  also  interested  in  the  boys,  so  that  he  too 
helps,  and  the  home  is  a  happy  one. 

At  the  top  of  the  house  is  a  long  roomy 
attic.  This  is  an  improvised  studio — or,  as 
the  sculptor  would  doubtless  say,  the  work 
shop.  Hither,  from  the  busy  work  of  the 
morning,  comes  the  artist  for  an  hour  or 
half  an  hour  of  modeling — for  rest,  and  for 
the  first  effort  to  transfer  to  the  plastic  clay 
some  fleeting  transient  dream. 

Meta  Warrick  Fuller  was  born  in  Phila 
delphia,  Pennsylvania,  June  9,  1877.  For 


62  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

four  years  she  attended  the  Pennsylvania 
School  of  Industrial  Art,  and  it  was  at  this 
institution  that  she  first  began  to  force  seri 
ous  recognition  of  her  talent.  Before  very 
long  she  began  to  be  known  as  a  sculptor 
of  the  horrible,  one  of  her  first  original 
pieces  being  a  head  of  Medusa,  with  a  hang 
ing  jaw,  beads  of  gore,  and  eyes  starting 
from  their  sockets.  At  her  graduation  in 
1898  she  won  a  prize  for  metal  work  by  a 
crucifix  upon  which  hung  the  figure  of 
Christ  in  agony,  and  she  also  won  honorable 
mention  for  her  work  in  modeling.  In  a 
post-graduate  year  she  won  a  much  coveted 
prize  in  modeling.  In  1899  Meta  Warrick 
(then  best  known  by  her  full  name,  Meta 
Vaux  Warrick)  went  to  Paris,  where  she 
worked  and  studied  three  years.  Her  work 
brought  her  in  contact  with  many  other  ar 
tists,  among  them  Augustus  St.  Gaudens, 
the  sculptor  of  the  Robert  Gould  Shaw 
Monument  at  the  head  of  Boston  Common. 
Then  there  came  a  day  when  by  appoint 
ment  the  young  woman  went  to  see  Auguste 
Rodin,  who  after  years  of  struggle  and  dis 
praise  had  finally  won  recognition  as  the 
foremost  sculptor  in  France  if  not  in  the 
world.  The  great  man  glanced  one  after 
another  at  the  pieces  that  were  presented  to 
him,  without  very  evident  interest.  At 


63 


length,  thrilled  by  the  figure  in  "Silent 
Sorrow,"  sometimes  referred  to  as  "Man 
Eating  His  Heart  Out,"  Rodin  beamed 
upon  the  young  woman  and  said,  "Madem 
oiselle,  you  are  a  sculptor;  you  have  the 
sense  of  form."  With  encouragement  from 
such  a  source  the  young  artist  worked  with 
renewed  vigor,  looking  forward  to  the  time 
when  something  that  she  had  produced 
should  win  a  place  in  the  Salon,  the  great 
national  gallery  in  Paris.  "The  Wretched," 
one  of  the  artist's  masterpieces,  was  exhib 
ited  here  in  1903,  and  along  with  it  went 
"The  Impenitent  Thief."  This  latter  pro 
duction  was  demolished  in  1904,  after  meet 
ing  with  various  unhappy  accidents.  In  the 
form  as  presented,  however,  the  thief,  he 
roic  in  size,  hung  on  the  cross  torn  by  an 
guish.  Hardened,  unsympathetic,  and  even 
defiant,  he  still  possessed  some  admirable 
qualities  of  strength,  and  he  has  remained 
one  of  the  sculptor's  most  powerful  concep 
tions.  In  "The  Wretched"  seven  figures 
greet  the  eye.  Each  represents  a  different 
form  of  human  anguish.  An  old  man,  worn 
by  hunger  and  disease,  waits  for  death.  A 
mother  yearns  for  the  loved  ones  she  has 
lost.  A  man  bowed  by  shame  fears  to  look 
upon  his  fellow-creatures.  A  sick  child 
suffers  from  some  hereditary  taint.  A  youth 


64  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

is  in  despair,  and  a  woman  is  crazed  by  sor 
row.  Over  all  is  the  Philosopher  who  suffers 
perhaps  more  keenly  than  the  others  as  he 
views  the  misery  around  them,  and  who, 
powerless  to  relieve  it,  also  sinks  into  de 
spair. 

Other  early  productions  were  similarly 
characterized  by  a  strongly  romantic  qual 
ity.  "Silent  Sorrow"  has  already  been  re 
marked  in  passing.  In  this  a  man,  worn  and 
gaunt  and  in  despair,  is  represented  as  lean 
ing  over  and  actually  eating  out  his  own 
heart.  "Man  Carrying  Dead  Body"  is  in 
similar  vein.  The  sculptor  is  moved  by  the 
thought  of  one  who  will  be  spurred  on  by 
the  impulse  of  duty  to  the  performance  of 
some  task  not  only  unpleasant  but  even 
loathsome.  She  shows  a  man  bearing  across 
his  shoulder  the  body  of  a  comrade  that  has 
evidently  lain  on  the  battlefield  for  days. 
The  thing  is  horrible,  and  the  man  totters 
under  the  great  weight;  but  he  forces  his 
way  onward  until  he  can  give  it  decent 
burial.  Another  early  production  was 
based  on  the  ancient  Greek  story  of  Oedi 
pus.  This  story  was  somewhat  as  follows: 
Oedipus  was  the  son  of  Laius  and  Jocasta, 
king  and  queen  of  Thebes.  At  his  birth  an 
oracle  foretold  that  the  father  Laius  would 


META  WARRICK  FULLER  65 

be  killed  by  his  son.  The  child  was  sent 
away  to  be  killed  by  exposure,  but  in  course 
of  time  was  saved  and  afterwards  adopted 
by  the  King  of  Corinth.  When  he  was 
grown,  being  warned  by  an  oracle  that  he 
would  kill  his  father  and  marry  his  mother, 
he  left  home.  On  his  journey  he  met  Laius 
and  slew  him  in  the  course  of  an  altercation. 
Later,  by  solving  the  riddle  of  the  sphinx, 
he  freed  Thebes  from  distress,  was  made 
king  of  the  city,  and  married  Jocasta. 
Eventually  the  terrible  truth  of  the  rela 
tionship  became  known  to  all.  Jocasta 
hanged  herself  and  Oedipus  tore  out  his 
eyes.  The  sculptor  portrays  the  hero  of  the 
old  legend  at  the  very  moment  that  he  is  thus 
trjdng  to  punish  himself  for  his  crime. 
There  is  nothing  delicate  or  pretty  about  all 
such  work  as  this.  It  is  grewsome  in  fact, 
and  horrible;  but  it  is  also  strong  and  in 
tense  and  vital.  Its  merit  was  at  once  rec 
ognized  by  the  French,  and  it  gave  Meta 
Warrick  a  recognized  place  among  the 
sculptors  of  America. 

On  her  return  to  America  the  artist  re 
sumed  her  studies  at  the  School  of  Indus 
trial  Art,  winning  in  1904  the  Battles  first 
prize  for  pottery.  In  1907  she  produced  a 
series  of  tableaux  representing  the  advance 


66  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

of  the  Negro  for  the  Jamestown  Tercenten 
nial  Exposition,  and  in  1913  a  group  for  the 
New  York  State  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  Commission.  In  1909  she  became  the 
wife  of  Dr.  Solomon  C.  Fuller,  of  Fram- 
ingham,  Massachusetts.  A  fire  in  1910  un 
fortunately  destroyed  some  of  her  most 
valuable  pieces  while  they  were  in  storage 
in  Philadelphia.  Only  a  few  examples  of 
her  early  work,  that  happened  to  be  else 
where,  were  saved.  The  artist  was  un 
daunted,  however,  and  by  May,  1914,  she 
had  sufficiently  recovered  from  the  blow  to 
be  able  to  hold  at  her  home  a  public  exhi 
bition  of  her  work. 

After  this  fire  a  new  note  crept  into  the 
work  of  Meta  Warrick  Fuller.  This  was 
doubtless  due  not  so  much  to  the  fire  itself 
as  to  the  larger  conception  of  life  that  now 
came  to  the  sculptor  with  the  new  duties  of 
marriage  and  motherhood.  From  this  time 
forth  it  was  not  so  much  the  romantic  as  the 
social  note  that  was  emphasized.  Repre 
sentative  of  the  new  influence  was  the  sec 
ond  model  of  the  group  for  the  Emancipa 
tion  Proclamation  Commission.  A  recently 
emancipated  Negro  youth  and  maiden  stand 
beneath  a  gnarled,  decapitated  tree  that  has 
what  looks  almost  like  a  human  hand 


META  WARRICK  FULLER  67 

stretched  over  them.  Humanity  is  pushing 
them  forth  into  the  world  while  at  the  same 
time  the  hand  of  Destiny  is  restraining  them 
in  the  full  exercise  of  their  freedom.  "Im 
migrant  in  America"  is  in  somewhat  similar 
vein.  An  American  woman,  the  mother  of 
one  strong  healthy  child,  is  shown  welcom 
ing  to  the  land  of  plenty  the  foreigner,  the 
mother  of  several  poorly  nourished  chidren. 
Closely  related  in  subject  is  the  smaller 
piece,  "The  Silent  Appeal,"  in  which  a 
mother  capable  of  producing  and  caring  for 
three  sturdy  children  is  shown  as  making  a 
quiet  demand  for  the  suffrage  and  for  any 
other  privileges  to  which  a  human  being  is 
entitled.  All  of  these  productions  are  clear 
cut,  straightforward,  and  dignified. 

In  May,  1917,  Meta  Warrick  Fuller  took 
second  prize  in  a  competition  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Massachusetts  Branch  of  the 
Woman's  Peace  Party,  her  subject  being 
"Peace  Halting  the  Ruthlessness  of  War." 
War  is  personified  as  on  a  mighty  steed  and 
trampling  to  death  numberless  human  be 
ings.  In  one  hand  he  holds  a  spear  on  which 
he  has  transfixed  the  head  of  one  of  his  vic 
tims.  As  he  goes  on  his  masterful  career 
Peace  meets  him  and  commands  him  to  cease 
his  ravages.  The  work  as  exhibited  was  in 


68  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

gray-green  wax  and  was  a  production  of 
most  unusual  spirit. 

Among  other  prominent  titles  are  "Watch 
ing  for  Dawn,"  a  conception  of  remarkable 
beauty  and  yearning,  and  "Mother  and 
Child."  An  early  production  somewhat  de 
tached  from  other  pieces  is  a  head  of  John 
the  Baptist.  This  is  one  of  the  most  haunt 
ing  creations  of  Mrs.  Fuller.  In  it  she  was 
especially  successful  in  the  infinite  yearning 
and  pathos  that  she  somehow  managed  to 
give  to  the  eyes  of  the  seer.  It  bears  the 
unmistakable  stamp  of  power. 

In  this  whole  review  of  this  sculptor's 
work  we  have  indicated  only  the  chief 
titles.  She  is  an  indefatigable  worker  and 
has  produced  numerous  smaller  pieces, 
many  of  these  being  naturally  for  commer 
cial  purposes.  As  has  been  remarked,  while 
her  work  was  at  first  romantic  and  often 
even  horrible,  in  recent  years  she  has  been 
interested  rather  in  social  themes.  There 
are  those,  however,  who  hope  that  she  will 
not  utterly  forsake  the  field  in  which  she 
first  became  distinguished.  Through  the 
sternness  of  her  early  work  speaks  the  very 
tragedy  of  the  Negro  race.  In  any  case  it 
is  pleasant  to  record  that  the  foremost 


META  WABBICK  FULLER  69 

sculptor  of  the  race  is  not  only  an  artist  of 
rank  but  also  a  woman  who  knows  and  ap 
preciates  in  the  highest  possible  manner  the 
virtues  and  the  beautiei  of  the  home. 


MARY  McLEOD  BETHUNE 


MARY  McLEOD  BETHUNE 


V. 

-  MARY  McLEOD  BETHUNE 

On  October  3,  1904,  a  lone  woman,  in 
spired  by  the  desire  to  do  something  for  the 
needy  ones  of  her  race  and  state,  began  at 
Daytona,  Florida,  a  training  school  for 
Xegro  girls.  She  had  only  one  dollar  and 
a  half  in  money,  but  she  had  faith,  energy, 
and  a  heart  full  of  love  for  her  people.  To 
day  she  has  an  institution  worth  not  less 
than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  with 
plans  for  extensive  and  immediate  enlarge 
ment,  and  her  school  is  one  of  the  best  con 
ducted  and  most  clear-visioned  in  the  coun 
try.  Such  has  been  the  result  of  boundless 
energy  and  thrift  joined  to  an  unwavering 
faith  in  God. 

Mary  McLeod  was  born  July  10,  1875,  in 
a  three-room  log  cabin  on  a  little  cotton  and 
rice  farm  about  three  miles  from  Mayes- 
ville,  South  Carolina,  being  one  in  the  large 
family  of  Samuel  and  Patsy  McLeod.  Am 
bitious  even  from  her  early  years,  she 
yearned  for  larger  and  finer  things  than  her 
environment  afforded;  and  yet  even  the  life 

73 


74  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

that  she  saw  around  her  was  to  prove  a 
blessing  in  disguise,  as  it  gave  to  her  deeper 
and  clearer  insight  into  the  problems,  the 
shortcomings,  and  the  needs  of  her  people. 
In  course  of  time  she  attended  a  little  mis 
sion  school  in  Mayesville,  and  she  was  con 
verted  at  the  age  of  twelve.  Later  she  was 
graduated  at  Scotia  Seminary,  Concord, 
Nprth  Carolina,  and  then  she  went  to  the 
Moody  Bible  Institute  in  Chicago.  In  the 
years  of  her  schooling  she  received  some  as 
sistance  from  a  scholarship  given  by  Miss 
Mary  Chrisman,  a  dressmaker  of  Denver, 
Colorado.  Mary  McLeod  never  forgot  that 
she  had  been  helped  by  a  working  woman. 
Some  day  she  intended  to  justify  that  faith, 
and  time  has  shown  that  never  was  a  scholar 
ship  invested  to  better  advantage. 

In  1898  Mary  McLeod  was  married.  She 
became  the  mother  of  one  son.  Not  long 
after,  the  family  moved  to  Palatka,  Florida. 
Now  followed  the  hard  years  of  waiting,  of 
praying,  of  hoping;  but  through  it  all  the 
earnest  woman  never  lost  faith  in  herself, 
nor  in  God.  She  gained  experience  in  a 
little  school  that  she  taught,  she  sang  with 
unusual  effect  in  the  churches  of  the  town, 
and  she  took  part  in  any  forward  movement 
or  uplift  enterprise  that  she  could.  All  the 


MARY  McLEOD  BETHUNE  75 

while,  however,  she  knew  that  the  big  task 
was  yet  to  come.  She  prayed,  and  hoped, 
and  waited. 

By  the  fall  of  1904  it  seemed  that  the  time 
had  come.  In  a  little  rented  house,  with  five 
girls,  Mrs.  Bethune  began  what  is  now  the 
Daytona  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute 
for  Negro  Girls.  By  means  of  concerts  and 
festivals  the  first  payment  of  five  dollars  was 
made  on  the  present  site,  then  an  old  dump- 
pile.  With  their  own  hands  the  teacher  and 
the  pupils  cleared  away  much  of  the  rubbish, 
and  from  the  first  they  invited  the  co-opera- 
ion  of  the  people  around  them  by  lending  a 
helping  hand  in  any  way  they  could,  by 
"being  neighborly."  In  1905  a  Board  of 
Trustees  was  organized  and  the  school  was 
chartered.  In  1907  Faith  Hall,  a  four-story 
frame  house,  forty  by  fifty  feet,  was  "prayed 
up,  sung  up,  and  talked  up;"  and  we  can 
understand  at  what  a  premium  space  was  in 
the  earlier  days  when  we  know  that  this 
building  furnished  dormitory  accommoda 
tions  for  teachers  and  students,  dining-room, 
reading  room,  storerooms,  and  bathrooms. 
To  the  rear  of  Faith  Hall  was  placed  a  two- 
story  structure  containing  the  school  kitchen 
and  the  domestic  science  room.  In  1909  the 
school  found  it  necessary  to  acquire  a  farm 


76  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

for  the  raising  of  live  stock  and  vegetables 
and  for  the  practical  outdoor  training  of  the 
girls.  After  six  weeks  of  earnest  work  the 
twelve-acre  tract  in  front  of  the  school  was 
purchased.  In  1914  a  Model  Home  was 
built.  In  this  year  also  an  additional  west 
farm  of  six  acres,  on  which  was  a  two-story 
frame  building,  was  needed,  asked  for,  and 
procured.  In  March,  1918,  the  labors  of 
fourteen  years  were  crowned  by  the  erection 
and  dedication  of  a  spacious  auditorium; 
and  among  the  speakers  at  the  dedication 
were  the  Governor  of  Florida  and  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  Efforts  now 
look  forward  to  a  great  new  dormitory  for 
the  girls. 

Such  a  bare  account  of  achievements, 
however,  by  no  means  gives  one  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  striving  and  the  hoping 
and  the  praying  that  have  entered  into  the 
work.  To  begin  with,  Daytona  was  a  strate 
gic  place  for  the  school.  There  was  no  other 
such  school  along  the  entire  east  coast  of 
Florida,  and  as  a  place  of  unusual  beauty 
and  attractiveness  the  town  was  visited 
throughout  the  winter  by  wealthy  tourists. 
From  the  very  first,  however,  the  girls  were 
trained  in  the  virtues  of  the  home,  and  in 
self-help.  Great  emphasis  was  placed  on 


MART  McLEOD  BETHUNE  77 

domestic  science,  and  not  only  for  this  as  an 
end  in  itself,  but  also  as  a  means  for  the 
larger  training  in  cleanliness  and  thrift  and 
good  taste.  "We  notice  strawberries  are 
selling  at  fifty  and  sixty  cents  a  quart,"  said 
a  visitor,  "and  you  have  a  splendid  patch. 
Do  you  use  them  for  your  students  or  sell 
them?"  "We  never  eat  a  quart  when  we 
can  get  fifty  cents  for  them,"  was  the  reply. 
"We  can  take  fifty  cents  and  buy  a  bone  that 
will  make  soup  for  us  all,  when  a  quart  of 
berries  would  supply  only  a  few." 

For  one  interested  in  education  few  pic 
tures  could  be  more  beautiful  than  that  of 
the  dining-room  at  the  school  in  the  morning 
of  a  day  in  midterm.  Florida  is  warm  often 
even  in  midwinter;  nevertheless,  rising  at 
five  gives  one  a  keen  appetite  for  the  early 
breakfast.  The  ceiling  is  low  and  there  are 
other  obvious  disadvantages;  but  over  all  is 
the  spirit  of  good  cheer  and  of  home.  The 
tablecloths  are  very  white  and  clean ;  flowers 
are  on  the  different  tables;  at  the  head  of 
each  a  teacher  presides  over  five  or  six  girls ; 
the  food  is  nourishing  and  well-prepared; 
and  one  leaves  with  the  feeling  that  if  he  had 
a  sister  or  daughter  he  would  like  for  her  to 
have  the  training  of  some  such  place  as  this. 


78  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

Of  such  quality  is  the  work  that  has  been 
built  up;  and  all  has  been  accomplished 
through  the  remarkable  personality  of  the 
woman  who  is  the  head  and  the  soul  of  every 
effort.  Indomitable  courage,  boundless  en 
ergy,  fine  tact  and  a  sense  of  the  fitness  of 
things,  kindly  spirit,  and  firm  faith  in  God 
have  deservedly  given  her  success.  Beyond 
the  bounds  of  her  immediate  institution  her 
influence  extends.  About  the  year  1912  the 
trustees  felt  the  need  of  so  extending  the 
work  as  to  make  the  school  something  of  a 
community  center;  and  thus  arose  the  Mc- 
Leod  Hospital  and  Training  School  for 
Nurses.  In  1912,  moved  by  the  utter  neg 
lect  of  the  children  of  the  turpentine  camp 
at  Tomoka,  Mrs.  Bethune  started  work  for 
them  in  a  little  house  that  she  secured.  The 
aim  was  to  teach  the  children  to  be  clean  and 
truthful  and  helpful,  to  sew  and  to  sweep 
and  to  sing.  A  short  school  term  was 
started  among  them,  and  the  mission  serves 
as  an  excellent  practice  school  for  the  girls 
of  the  senior  class  in  the  Training  School. 
A  summer  school  and  a  playground  have 
also  been  started  for  the  children  in  Day- 
tona.  Nor  have  the  boys  and  young  men 
been  neglected.  Here  was  a  problem  of 
unusual  difficulty.  Any  one  who  has  looked 
into  the  inner  life  of  the  small  towns  of 


MART  McLEOD  BETHUNE  79 

Florida  could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the 
situation  of  the  boys  and  young  men.  Hotel 
life,  a  shifting  tourist  population,  and  a  cli 
mate  of  unusual  seductiveness,  have  all  left 
their  impress.  On  every  side  to  the  young 
man  beckons  temptation,  and  in  town  after 
town  one  finds  not  one  decent  recreation 
center  or  uplifting  social  influence.  Pool 
rooms  abound,  and  the  young  man  is  blamed 
for  entering  forbidden  paths;  but  all  too 
often  the  Christian  men  and  women  of  the 
community  have  put  forth  no  definite  organ 
ized  effort  for  his  uplift.  All  too  often 
there  results  a  blasted  life — a  heartache  for 
a  mother,  or  a  ruined  home  for  some  young 
woman.  In  Daytona,  in  1913,  on  a  lot  near 
the  school  campus,  one  of  the  trustees,  Mr. 
George  S.  Doane,  erected  a  neat,  commodi 
ous  building  to  be  used  in  connection  with 
the  extension  work  of  the  institution  as  a 
general  reading-room  and  home  for  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association;  and 
this  is  the  only  specific  work  so  being  done 
for  Negro  boys  in  this  section  of  the  state. 
A  debating  club,  an  athletic  club,  lecture 
club,  and  prayer-meetings  all  serve  as  means 
toward  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  spir 
itual  development  of  the  young  men.  A 
"Better  Boys  Movement"  is  also  making 
progress  and  the  younger  boys  are  becom- 


80  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

ing  interested  in  canning  and  farming  as 
well  as  being  cared  for  in  their  sports  and 
games. 

No  sketch  of  this  woman's  work  should 
close  without  mention  of  her  activities  for 
the  nation  at  large.  Red  Cross  work  or  a 
Liberty  Loan  drive  has  alike  called  forth  her 
interest  and  her  energy.  She  has  appeared 
on  some  great  occasions  and  before  distin 
guished  audiences,  such  as  that  for  instance 
in  the  Belasco  Theatre  in  Washington  in 
December,  1917,  when  on  a  noteworthy  pa 
triotic  occasion  she  was  the  only  representa 
tive  of  her  race  to  speak. 

Her  girls  have  gone  into  many  spheres  of 
life  and  have  regularly  made  themselves 
useful  and  desirable.  Nearly  two  hundred 
are  now  annually  enrolled  at  the  school. 
The  demand  for  them  as  teachers,  seam 
stresses,  or  cooks  far  exceeds  the  supply.  In 
great  homes  and  humble,  in  country  or  in 
town,  in  Daytona  or  elsewhere — North, 
South,  East,  West — they  remember  the 
motto  of  their  teacher  and  of  the  Master  of 
all,  "Not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  min 
ister;"  and  year  after  year  they  accomplish 
better  and  better  things  for  the  school  that 


MARY  McLEOD  BETHUNE  81 

they  love  so  well  and  through  it  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 


Two  thousand  years  ago  the  Savior  of 
Mankind  walked  upon  the  earth,  a  man  of 
sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief;  and  the 
people  hid  as  it  were  their  faces  from  him. 
But  one  day  he  went  into  the  home  of  a 
Pharisee  and  sat  him  down  to  meat.  And  a 
woman  of  the  city,  when  she  knew  that 
Jesus  sat  at  meat  in  the  Pharisee's  house, 
brought  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  ex 
ceeding  precious,  and  began  to  wash  his  feet 
with  her  tears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the 
hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet,  and 
anointed  them  with  the  ointment.  And  there 
were  some  that  had  indignation  among  them 
selves,  and  said,  Why  was  this  waste  of  the 
ointment  made?  But  Jesus  said,  Let  her 
alone.  She  hath  wrought  a  good  work  on 
me.  She  hath  done  what  she  could.  Verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  Wheresoever  this  gospel 
shall  be  preached  throughout  the  whole 
world,  this  also  that  she  hath  done  shall  be 
spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of  her. 

To-day  as  well  as  centuries  ago  the  Christ 
is  before  us,  around  us,  waiting.  We  do  not 
always  know  him,  for  he  appears  in  dis- 


82  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

guise,  as  a  little  orphan,  or  a  sick  old  woman, 
or  even  perhaps  as  some  one  of  high  estate 
but  in  need  of  prayer.  Let  us  do  what  we 
can.  Let  each  one  prove  herself  an  earnest 
follower.  To  such  end  is  the  effort  of  Mary 
McLeod  Bethune;  and  as  we  think  of  all 
that  she  has  done  and  is  doing  let  us  for  our 
own  selves  once  more  recall  the  beautiful 
words  of  Sister  Moore:  "There  is  no  place 
too  lowly  or  dark  for  our  feet  to  enter,  and 
no  place  so  high  and  bright  but  it  needs  the 
touch  of  the  light  that  we  carry  from  the 
Cross." 


MARY  CHURCH  TERRELL 


MARY  CHURCH  TERRELL 


VI. 

MARY  CHURCH  TERRELL 

With  the  increasingly  complex  problems 
of  American  civilization,  woman  is  being 
called  on  in  ways  before  undreamed  of  to 
bear  a  share  in  great  public  burdens.  The 
recent  great  war  has  demonstrated  anew 
the  part  that  she  is  to  play  in  our  factories, 
our  relief  work,  our  religious  organizations 
— in  all  the  activities  of  our  social  and  indus 
trial  life.  The  broadening  basis  of  the  suf 
frage  in  some  states  and  the  election  of  a 
woman  to  a  seat  in  Congress  have  also  em 
phasized  the  fact  that  in  the  new  day  woman 
as  well  as  man  will  have  to  bear  the  larger 
responsibilities  of  citizenship.  In  all  this 
intense  life  the  Negro  woman  has  taken  a 
part,  and  she  will  have  to  do  still  more  in  the 
future.  Even  before  the  Civil  War  there 
were  women  of  the  race  who  labored,  some 
times  in  large  ways,  for  the  influencing  of 
sentiment  and  the  salvation  of  their  people. 
In  the  present  period  of  our  country's  his 
tory  new  problems  arise,  sometimes  even 
more  delicate  than  those  that  went  before 
them  and  even  more  difficult  of  solution — 

85 


86  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

problems  of  education,  readjustment,  and  of 
the  proper  moulding  of  public  opinion. 
They  call  for  keen  intelligence,  broad  infor 
mation,  rich  culture,  and  the  ability  to  meet 
men  and  women  of  other  races  and  other 
countries  on  the  broad  plane  of  cosmopoli 
tanism.  In  public  life  and  in  the  higher 
graces  of  society  no  woman  of  the  race  has 
commanded  more  attention  from  the  Ameri 
can  and  the  international  public  than  Mary 
Church  Terrell. 

The  life  of  this  woman  is  an  example  of 
the  possibilities  not  only  of  Negro  but  of 
American  womanhood.  She  has  appeared 
on  platforms  with  men  and  women  of  other 
races,  sometimes  sturdy  opponents  on  pub 
lic  questions,  and  more  than  held  her  own. 
She  has  attended  an  international  congress 
in  Europe  and  surpassed  all  the  other 
women  from  her  country  in  her  ability  to 
address  audiences  in  languages  other  than 
English.  With  all  this  she  has  never  for 
gotten  the  religious  impulse  that  is  so 
strong  in  the  heart  of  her  people  and  that 
ultimately  is  to  play  so  large  a  part  in  their 
advancement.  One  admirer  of  her  culture 
has  said,  "She  should  be  engaged  to  travel 
over  the  country  as  a  model  of  good  man 
ners  and  good  English." 


MARY  CHURCH  TERRELL  87 

Mary  Church  was  born  in  Memphis, 
Tennessee,  the  daughter  of  Robert  R.  and 
Louisa  Ayres  Church.  When  she  was  yet 
very  young  her  parents  sent  her  to  Ohio  to 
be  educated,  and  here  she  remained  until 
she  was  graduated  from  the  classical  course 
in  1884.  Then  for  two  years  she  taught  at 
Wilberforce  University  in  Ohio,  and  for  one 
year  more  in  a  high  school  in  Washington. 
Desirous  of  broadening  her  attainments, 
however,  she  now  went  to  Europe  for  a 
period  of  study  and  travel.  She  remained 
two  years,  spending  the  time  in  France, 
Switzerland,  Germany,  and  Italy,  generally 
improving  herself  in  language.  On  her  re 
turn  she  resumed  her  work  in  Washington, 
and  she  was  offered  the  registrarship  at 
Oberlin  College,  a  distinct  compliment  com 
ing  as  it  did  from  an  institution  of  such  high 
standing.  She  declined  the  attractive  po 
sition,  however,  because  of  her  approaching 
marriage  to  Robert  H.  Terrell,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  College  and  formerly  principal 
of  a  high  school  in  Washington,  who  was 
appointed  to  a  judgeship  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  by  President  Roosevelt. 

Since  her  marriage  Mrs.  Terrell  has  writ 
ten  much  on  topics  of  general  interest  and 
from  time  to  time  has  formally  appeared  as 


88  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

a  public  lecturer.  One  of  her  strongest  arti 
cles  was  that  on  Lynching  in  the  North 
American  Review  for  June,  1904.  The  cen 
tenary  of  the  birth  of  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  in  1912  found  her  unusually  well 
posted  on  the  life  and  work  of  the  novelist, 
so  that  after  she  lectured  many  times  on  the 
subject  she  brought  together  the  results  of 
her  study  in  an  excellent  pamphlet.  She 
was  the  first  president  of  the  National  As 
sociation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs,  was 
twice  re-elected,  and,  declining  to  serve  fur 
ther,  was  made  honorary  president  for  life. 
She  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  speakers  at  the 
International  Congress  of  Women  held  in 
Berlin  in  June,  1904.  Said  the  Washington 
Post  of  her  performance  on  this  occasion: 
"The  hit  of  the  Congress  on  the  part  of  the 
American  delegates  was  made  by  Mrs. 
Mary  Church  Terrell  of  Washington,  who 
delivered  one  speech  in  German  and  another 
in  equally  good  French.  Mrs.  Terrell  is  a 
colored  woman  who  appears  to  have  been 
beyond  every  other  of  our  delegates  promi 
nent  for  her  ability  to  make  addresses  in 
other  than  her  own  language."  In  a  letter 
to  some  of  the  largest  newspapers  in  the 
country  Mrs.  Ida  Husted  Harper  said  fur 
ther:  "This  achievement  on  the  part  of  a 
colored  woman,  added  to  a  fine  appearance 


MART  CHURCH  TERRELL  99 

and  the  eloquence  of  her  words,  carried  the 
audience  by  storm  and  she  had  to  respond 
three  times  to  the  encores  before  they  were 
satisfied.  It  was  more  than  a  personal  tri 
umph;  it  was  a  triumph  for  her  race." 

Mrs.  Terrell  has  ever  exhibited  an  in 
tense  interest  in  public  affairs.  On  the  occa 
sion  of  the  discharge  of  the  Negro  soldiers 
in  Brownsville,  Texas,  in  1906,  she  at  once 
comprehended  the  tremendous  issues  in 
volved  and  by  her  interviews  with  men  high 
in  the  nation's  life  did  much  for  the  im 
provement  of  a  bad  situation.  When,  some 
years  ago,  Congress  by  resolution  granted 
power  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  District 
of  Columbia  to  appoint  two  women  upon  the 
Board  of  Education  for  the  public  schools, 
Mrs.  Terrell  was  one  of  the  women  ap 
pointed.  She  served  on  the  Board  for  five 
years  with  signal  ability  and  unusual  suc 
cess,  and  on  the  occasion  of  her  resignation 
in  1912  was  given  a  magnificent  testimonial 
by  her  fellow-citizens. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  record  all  the  dif 
ferent  things  that  Mary  Church  Terrell  has 
done  or  the  numerous  ways  in  which  she  has 
turned  sentiment  on  the  race  problem.  In 
recent  years  she  has  been  drawn  more  and 


90  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

more  to  her  own  home.  She  is  in  constant 
demand  as  a  speaker,  however,  and  one  or 
two  experiences  or  incidents  must  not  pass 
unremarked.  In  1906  she  was  invited  by 
Prof.  Jeremiah  W.  Jenks  to  come  to  Cor 
nell  University  to  deliver  her  address  on  the 
Bright  Side  of  the  Race  Problem.  She  was 
introduced  by  Prof.  F.  A.  Fetter  of  the  De 
partment  of  Economics.  When  she  had  fin 
ished  her  lecture  she  was  greeted  by  deafen 
ing  applause,  and  then  she  was  surrounded 
by  an  eager  crowd  desirous  of  receiving  an 
introduction.  One  enthusiastic  woman  ex 
claimed,  as  she  warmly  shook  the  speaker's 
hand,  "I  was  so  glad  to  hear  you  say  some 
thing  about  the  bright  side,  and — do  you 
know? — every  Southern  faculty  woman  was 
here."  A  little  later  she  was  the  guest  of 
honor  at  a  reception  in  the  home  of  Ex- 
Ambassador  Andrew  D.  White,  the  first 
president  of  Cornell  University. 

Just  what  Mary  Church  Terrell  means  as 
an  inspiration  to  the  young  women  of  the 
Negro  race  one  might  have  seen  some  years 
ago  if  he  could  have  been  present  at  Spelman 
Seminary  on  the  occasion  of  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  this  the  largest  school  for 
Negro  girls  in  the  world.  She  was  preceded 
on  the  program  by  one  or  two  prominent 


MARY  CHURCH  TERRELL  91 

speakers  who  tried  to  take  a  broad  view  of 
the  race  problem  but  who  were  plainly  baf 
fled  when  they  came  face  to  face  with  South 
ern  prejudice.  When  Mrs.  Terrell  rose  to 
speak  the  air  was  tense  with  eagerness  and 
anxiety.  How  she  acquitted  herself  on  this 
occasion,  how  eloquently  she  plead,  and  how 
nimbly  and  delicately  she  met  her  oppo 
nents'  arguments,  will  never  be  forgotten  by 
any  one  who  was  privileged  to  hear  her. 

The  compliments  that  have  been  paid  to 
the  eloquence,  the  grace,  the  culture,  the 
tact,  and  the  poise  of  this  woman  are  end 
less.  She  exhibits  exceptional  attainments 
either  on  or  off  the  platform.  Her  words 
bristle  with  earnestness  and  energy,  quickly 
captivating  an  audience  or  holding  the 
closest  attention  in  conversation.  Her  ges 
tures  are  frequent,  but  always  in  sympa 
thetic  harmony.  Her  face  is  inclined  to  be 
sad  in  repose,  but  lights  quickly  and  effec 
tively  to  the  soul  of  whatever  subject  she 
touches.  Her  voice  is  singularly  clear  and 
free  from  harsh  notes.  She  exhibits  no  ap 
parent  effort  in  speaking,  and  at  once  im 
presses  an  audience  by  her  ease,  her  courage, 
and  her  self-abnegation.  Through  all  her 
work  moreover  constantly  thrills  her  great 
hope  for  the  young  men  and  women  of  her 


92  WOMEN  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

race,  so  many  of  whom  she  has  personally 
inspired. 

Such  a  woman  is  an  asset  to  her  country 
and  an  honor  to  the  race  to  which  she  be 
longs. 


Published  by  the 

Woman's  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 

2969  Vernon  Avenue 

Chicago,  111. 


195 


